Lawyer for OneCoin crypto Ponzi scheme sentenced to 4 years in prison for a $4 billion fraud scheme

What’s new? A US court has sentenced the former head of legal and compliance for the OneCoin crypto Ponzi scheme, Irina Dilkinska, to four years in prison. In addition to her imprisonment, she was sentenced to one month of post-release supervision and ordered to pay $111,44 million in fines. Judge Edgardo Ramos called Dilkinska “a woman of great intelligence” who should have been more aware of the consequences. He added that she was fully aware of the legal consequences of her actions when she participated in the $4 billion fraud.

Statement from the US Attorney’s Office

What else is known? Dilinska pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering in Manhattan federal court on November 10. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison, and the former head of legal affairs faced up to 10 years in prison.

OneCoin, launched in Sofia in 2014, was selling coins of the same name through a multi-level marketing (MLM) system. The creators positioned the asset as a “bitcoin killer” capable of bringing about a “financial revolution” and claimed that it could be used to secure positions in mining pools.

By the end of 2016, the company had already raised more than $4 billion from 3,5 million investors worldwide, while the coins sold did not even exist in digital form.

Dilkinska is not the first OneCoin executive to go to jail for participating in a fraudulent scheme. OneCoin co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood received 20 years in prison and a $300 million fine last September, and his accomplice Ruja Ignatova is on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted list. Earlier this year, crypto pyramid lawyer Mark Scott received 10 years in prison.

In late March, a US court sentenced the founder of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX Sam Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison for fraud for $8 billion. In his last words, the businessman expressed regret and said that FTX could have survived if it had not been shut down. Prosecutors had asked for 40 to 50 years in prison for him, while defense lawyers had asked for up to 6,5 years, citing that the victims would be compensated as part of the exchange’s bankruptcy proceedings.