{"id":7917,"date":"2020-01-21T22:20:14","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T20:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.media\/?p=7917"},"modified":"2020-01-22T19:51:22","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22T17:51:22","slug":"onecoin-ponzi-scheme-scam-of-the-decade-continues-in-2020s-oceania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/onecoin-ponzi-scheme-scam-of-the-decade-continues-in-2020s-oceania\/","title":{"rendered":"OneCoin Ponzi Scheme: Scam of the Decade Continues in 2020\u2019s Oceania"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, we\u2019ve published an investigation into a large-scale Ponzi-scheme called OneCoin. The scheme had its branches in several different countries across several continents, defrauding people of billions of dollars.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The project appeared dead and its official website onecoin.eu was <\/span>shut down<\/span><\/a> as of November 30th, 2019. But, since January 8th, 2020, the website is <\/span>back online<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems that the scheme is still operating, at least in New Zealand.<\/span><\/p>\n

forklog.media puts together the latest findings regarding OneCoin\u2019s fate, as well as a brief reminder about its notorious past.<\/span><\/p>\n

New Zealand Reports<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The story with OneCoin in New Zealand unfolds at least since May 2019. Back then, RNZ Pacific <\/span>wrote<\/span><\/a> that three people from the local Samoan community claimed that they lost tens of thousands of dollars to the scam.<\/span><\/p>\n

OneCoin\u2019s \u201cindependent contractors\u201d were targeting the vulnerable Samoan minority via two local churches: the Samoa Worship Centre and the Samoan Independent Seventh Day Adventist Church (SISDAC). The scammers allegedly exploited the places of worship and the cultural tradition of trusting the elders to get more followers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Samoan Central Bank was \u201cexploring possible action against OneCoin,\u201d while New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority issued a warning about the project\u2019s suspicious nature and said it had \u201cno powers to pursue the overseas company.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

By June 14th, the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) <\/span>initiated<\/span><\/a> a probe into SISDAC. The probe wasn\u2019t focused on OneCoin in particular. The information about the scam emerged as a side product during an investigation under the <\/span>Charities Act 2005<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Allegedly, SISDAC and other churches in New Zealand were transferring the cryptocurrency to Samoa, where OneCoin is banned.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to RNZ Pacific, one of OneCoin\u2019s former contractors said that \u201ctheir work was facilitated\u201d by a New Zealand woman Sina Hunt, who effectively brought OneCoin to the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sina Hunt was a member of SISDAC and contributed to convincing the church officials to invest in the OneCoin scheme. The former contractor also said that Hunt was regularly meeting the officials to promote investment into OneCoin. The woman organized several public events for potential investors, boasting the appearances by important church figures.<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>latest update<\/span><\/a> to the story came through on January 20th, 2020. According to the reports, The DIA is now investigating the Auckland-based Samoa Worship Centre over its links to OneCoin. Now both SISDAC and Samoa Worship Centre are under the Internal Affairs\u2019 scrutiny.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both organizations are also suspected of money-laundering and are being investigated by Samoa\u2019s police and Central Bank.<\/span><\/p>\n

The church organizations deny their involvement in money-laundering and links to OneCoin.<\/span><\/p>\n

OneCoin In a Nutshell<\/strong><\/h2>\n

OneCoin was launched in August 2014 by Ruja Ignatova, a Bulgarian-native businesswoman. She acted as a public face of the project and was presented as a multilingual genius and one of the richest women in Europe, holding two academic degrees. Before OneCoin, she was <\/span>involved<\/span><\/a> in a $50 million scam called BigCoin.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the U.S. prosecutors, over its first three years of operation, OneCoin has collected over $4 billion, but the actual figures may be larger.<\/span><\/p>\n

OneCoin was, or still is, selling its coins disguised as \u201ceducational packages\u201d through an affiliated company called OneLife. The latter works as a multi-level marketing project selling \u201ceducational\u201d pdf files with plagiarized memos for traders. Each package also includes some of the scammers\u2019 coins, supposedly for free.<\/span><\/p>\n

The promise was that investors will be able to sell the coins at a profit on the xcoinc exchange when it is launched. The exchange is still not operational and there is no information about the actual development efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n

The scheme has managed to lure investors across the world. The list of affected countries includes Russia, Austria, Germany, the UK, China, and Vietnam, as well as African and Middle-Eastern countries. Now it appears that New Zealand, Samoa, and Australia are also on the list.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can find more details about OneCoin\u2019s notorious adventures in the <\/span>investigation feature<\/span><\/a> on forklog.media.<\/span><\/p>\n

Follow us on <\/b>Twitter<\/b><\/a> and <\/b>Facebook<\/b><\/a> and join our <\/b>Telegram channel<\/b><\/a> to know what\u2019s up with crypto and why it\u2019s important.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, we\u2019ve published an investigation into a large-scale Ponzi-scheme called OneCoin. The scheme had its branches in several different countries across several continents, defrauding people of billions of dollars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"human_written","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[30,1088,28,549],"class_list":["post-7917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-cryptocurrency","tag-onecoin","tag-ponzi","tag-scam"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"641","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7917"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7921,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7917\/revisions\/7921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}