OneCoin crypto pyramid scheme lawyer sentenced to 10 years in prison for fraud and money laundering

The prosecutor’s office requested a minimum of 17 years in prison for Mark Scott

26.01.2024 - 09:23

2 min

What’s new? A US court has sentenced OneCoin crypto pyramid scheme lawyer Mark Scott to 10 years in prison. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering back in November 2019. The prosecutor’s office pushed for a minimum sentence of 17 years, while the defendant’s attorneys requested five years. Before sentencing, Scott said he has “sympathy for OneCoin’s victims.”

Источник: Twitter.com

What else is known? 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 the “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 it sold did not even exist in digital form.

OneCoin co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood received 20 years in prison and $300 million in fines last September; his accomplice Ruja Ignatova is listed as one of the FBI’s top ten most wanted criminals. OneCoin’s former compliance director Irina Dilkinska pleaded guilty in November 2023, with sentencing scheduled for February this year.

The US IRS placed Greenwood’s case at number three on its own ranking of the year’s most high-profile cases.