The largest Ponzi scheme in the crypto world, as Leaprate reported not long ago, is OneCoin. While there are many fake ICOs, OneCoin stands out as the largest one – defrauding the global economy of approximately $4 billion in under 5 years.
While the founder, Ruja Ignatova, and her brother are the main “heroes” of the story, the lawyer behind the business, US lawyer Mark Scott, has not been put on trial for laundering $400 million through OneCoin.
The latest news comes from BBC. The trial has begun in New York. What Mr. Scott did is route around $400m out of the United States to try to hide the source and ownership of funds for the business. What BBC stated is that some of this money has ended up in accounts in Bank of Ireland.
In addition, Scott did not waste time apparently and some of the money went for his three houses, a Ferrari and a yacht.
Prior to his involvement in OneCoin, Mr. Scott was a well-to-do lawyer, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars per year as a partner at a top law firm. However, as reported by press, this was nothing compared to what he received as a lawyer in the OneCoin money laundering scheme.
Mr. Scott’s lawyers now expected that the US government will actually prove that the money came from OneCoin and it was invested in funds controlled by Scott.
The central problem here is that Scott previously assured the FBI that he had consulted with a colleague of his to make sure that OneCoin is not a scam and is an actual business. The major issue will be for the US government to prove that Scott knew that OneCoin was a criminal scheme after all.
Mr. Scott has pleaded not guilty. He is currently facing charges of bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering for the stated amount of close to $400 million.