On January 25, a US federal court sentenced a lawyer who laundered $400 million for the cryptocurrency pyramid scheme OneCoin to 10 years in prison, as reported by InnerCityPress.
Scott: I have sympathy for OneCoin’s victims .
Judge Ramos: I sentence you to ten years— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) January 25, 2024
Mark Scott was found guilty of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors initially sought a 17-year prison sentence.
“[Scott] wanted $50 million by age 50. He knew what money he was laundering and knew that OneCoin was a fraud. His greed demands 17 years of imprisonment,” stated the prosecution.
Before the verdict was announced, Scott expressed sympathy for the victims of OneCoin. According to his lawyers, he intends to request bail pending an appeal.
The OneCoin financial pyramid was founded in 2014 by Ruja Ignatova and Sebastian Greenwood. The project was initially marketed as a high-yield cryptocurrency, where investors profited not only from the asset’s growth but also from recruiting new participants.
Ignatova’s whereabouts have been unknown since 2017. In the spring of 2022, Europol included the OneCoin co-founder on its list of most wanted criminals (her profile is no longer listed there at the time of writing). She was later added to a similar list by the FBI.
According to media reports, Ignatova was killed in November 2018 on a yacht in the Ionian Sea. This information has yet to be confirmed.
In November 2023, former OneCoin compliance head Irina Dilkinska admitted guilt in fraud and money laundering. She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison on two counts.
In December 2022, co-founder and chief promoter of the financial pyramid Sebastian Greenwood confessed to fraud and money laundering. In mid-September, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.