OneCoin: The Biggest Scam Crypto Scam Ever?

[JollyGood]

An article on the BBC website about the OneCoin scam. It is amazing that they received an estimated $4.9 billion in total funding  

Mystery of the disappearing 'Cryptoqueen' Ruja Ignatova: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49826161

Is it the biggest crypto scam if it took $4.9 billion from investors? I cannot think of any other scam that received that much funding from either crypto or fiat world.

[1715004053]

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[1715004053]

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[JollyGood]

OneCoin lawyer on trial for role in 'crypto-scam': https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50289982

The New York court trial of Mark Scott the lawyer representing Onecoin has begun. I wonder if he might try to make a deal with the prosecutors and tell them everything he knows about the co-founder of Onecoin who is Dr Ruja Ignatova. She is also known as he self-styled Cryptoqueen and has gone in to hiding.

[suchmoon]

Is it the biggest crypto scam if it took $4.9 billion from investors? I cannot think of any other scam that received that much funding from either crypto or fiat world.

Is that real billions or "XYZ amount of BTC in 2016 that would now be worth..." billions?

For example Bitconnect reached ~$500 at one point so the market cap with 10 million coins would be ~$5 billion but obviously the actual size of the scam was nowhere near that.

Still, whether its 4.9 billion or a fraction thereof, Ms Ignatova surely made enough money to pay for a citizenship in a warm country with no extradition treaty.

[tmfp]

Is it the biggest crypto scam if it took $4.9 billion from investors? I cannot think of any other scam that received that much funding from either crypto or fiat world.

Is that real billions or "XYZ amount of BTC in 2016 that would now be worth..." billions?

For example Bitconnect reached ~$500 at one point so the market cap with 10 million coins would be ~$5 billion but obviously the actual size of the scam was nowhere near that.

Still, whether its 4.9 billion or a fraction thereof, Ms Ignatova surely made enough money to pay for a citizenship in a warm country with no extradition treaty.

No, this is $4.9 billion in real fiat money, taken in payment for (plagiarized) crypto "education" material which, depending on the amount spent, came with some Onecoins, the "value" of which always increased.....
It is the biggest example of my bete noir MLM (Multi Level Marketing) schemes ever; I posted about it here back in the day but people turned up their noses at it as not a real cryptocurrency, which was exactly the point.
It's a fascinating and depressing story which will no doubt make a great film one day, and the BBC podcast series is well produced and well worth a listen.

The Cryptoqueen (she used to refer to Onecoin as the "Bitcoin Killer") is either in said warm country right now (Dubai), or the concrete footings of a Bulgarian bridge, leaving her brother as a guest of the Feds as we speak.

[JollyGood]

Is that real billions or "XYZ amount of BTC in 2016 that would now be worth..." billions?

For example Bitconnect reached ~$500 at one point so the market cap with 10 million coins would be ~$5 billion but obviously the actual size of the scam was nowhere near that.

Still, whether its 4.9 billion or a fraction thereof, Ms Ignatova surely made enough money to pay for a citizenship in a warm country with no extradition treaty.

I think in the press articles I read it implies $4.9 billion as actual funding they received from investors. Right now they say she is in hiding but things will be cleared up as time goes by.

What would be the point of having all that money if she looks over her shoulder for the rest of her life knowing she might be arrested if she is discovered.

No, this is $4.9 billion in real fiat money, taken in payment for (plagiarized) crypto "education" material which, depending on the amount spent, came with some Onecoins, the "value" of which always increased.....
It is the biggest example of my bete noir MLM (Multi Level Marketing) schemes ever; I posted about it here back in the day but people turned up their noses at it as not a real cryptocurrency, which was exactly the point.
It's a fascinating and depressing story which will no doubt make a great film one day, and the BBC podcast series is well produced and well worth a listen.

The Cryptoqueen (she used to refer to Onecoin as the "Bitcoin Killer") is either in said warm country right now (Dubai), or the concrete footings of a Bulgarian bridge, leaving her brother as a guest of the Feds as we speak.

We are talking about serious levels of criminality.

Just hiring out Wembley Arena in London to make their Onecoin announcement would have cost a lot of money so if the trail was followed I wonder where it would lead to.

There is a lot more going on but she has vanished and as you mentioned who knows if she is even alive. Maybe she has a fake identity now and is trying to live a normal life outside of the limelight or maybe something more grim may have happened.

The whole story will come out in the end but here is the Onecoin London Launch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EibrWZ-L20

[tmfp]

Anyone wanting to research or read up on this incredible story could do worse than searching https://behindmlm.com/ which has been covering this scam for over five years, going right back to its origin in Bigcoin.
They are currently reporting on the trial of Mark Scott, the money laundering lawyer mentioned in the OP, and the latest is that Konstantin Ignatova, the Cryptoqueen's brother (currently held in the US on money laundering charges himself) has turned state's evidence in that case. Both Scott's and Ignatova's defenses appear to be based on "we didn't know it was a scam".
The trial is also being live Tweeted here.

They used to do the most outrageously brazen shit, a small example was faking CMC ratings (those were the days, BTC @ $428....)

[stompix]

4.9 billion poured in a few months in a scam, bitcoin receiving pennies at that time...
One proof if we needed one more that this world is f up!

“It is a great turn-around. Somehow, I knew a day like this would come, my tears have now turned to joy. Our goal is to overtake Bitcoin and we are almost there. We are the new billionaires in town, thanks to our leader Dr. Ruja Ignatova.”

Triple facepalm!!!

I think in the press articles I read it implies $4.9 billion as actual funding they received from investors. Right now they say she is in hiding but things will be cleared up as time goes by.
What would be the point of having all that money if she looks over her shoulder for the rest of her life knowing she might be arrested if she is discovered.

I doubt anything will be cleared up more than it is already at this moment, the money is gone, the method they scammed is known, almost all the details are already known, what is left is finding her and what is left of the $. But, I doubt any will happen.
As for the second part, you will be amazed how many people will take those risks for a few hundred thousand, here we speak of millions.
Living a rich life for a few years or spend your entire life in poverty, for some the choice is obvious.

[allyouracid]

OneCoin, as bad as it was, was fascinating in its own way. From its size, it somewhat reminded me of MMM Global and BitConnect. While I have no numbers on the former one, though, OneCoin was still bigger than BitConnect.

What all three have in common is: they were an absolute plague. Especially the OneCoin ads which were literally everywhere. Also lots of real life events, "coaching" on how to get the next level suckers in. People lose their live savings, mainstream media picks it up and throws it into one pot with Bitcoin.

I wonder if there's a way to counter such scams before they really evolve. People generally need better education on this. But the question is: would it even work? Here on BCT, one of the most frequent phrases is the "If it sounds too good to be true…" one. Literally anyone here has read it. But as soon as people's greed is triggered with high expectations, the brain somehow shuts off.

[tmfp]

Just a little taster of the testimony being given today by Konstantin, Ruja Ignatova's brother.....



Courtesy of https://twitter.com/innercitypress/status/1192084267901345793

[logfiles]

Just a little taster of the testimony being given today by Konstantin, Ruja Ignatova's brother.....

https://talkimg.com/images/2023/07/19/naKo2.png

Courtesy of https://twitter.com/innercitypress/status/1192084267901345793

Damn 
Just how heartless some people can be?
How do you even go on such a spending spree knowing that you just scammed someone?

OneCoin, as bad as it was, was fascinating in its own way. From its size, it somewhat reminded me of MMM Global and BitConnect. While I have no numbers on the former one, though, OneCoin was still bigger than BitConnect.

What all three have in common is: they were an absolute plague. Especially the OneCoin ads which were literally everywhere. Also lots of real life events, "coaching" on how to get the next level suckers in. People lose their live savings, mainstream media picks it up and throws it into one pot with Bitcoin.

I wonder if there's a way to counter such scams before they really evolve. People generally need better education on this. But the question is: would it even work? Here on BCT, one of the most frequent phrases is the "If it sounds too good to be true…" one. Literally anyone here has read it. But as soon as people's greed is triggered with high expectations, the brain somehow shuts off.

Schemes like Onecoin have always thrived because of hype. To be honest, i visited one of the 3rd world countries and in one of the towns that was evidently remote, i was so surprised to see a couple of cars moving around the street advertising onecoin on speakers as the "future of money"

The Aggressive hype and marketing model made locals around to know onecoin but nobody even talked about bitcoin.

I believe if such energy was channelled towards educating people about bitcoin and certain crypto scams. I am very sure very many people would be more knowledgeable and perhaps it would also rapidly increase bitcoin's adoption.

Unfortunately the scammers are the one advertising aggressively, and they give cryptocurrencies a very bad name. After getting scammed i don't think you can go back to such communities and tell them to buy bitcoin, and they do. They will instantly say that Bitcoin is also scam.

[LeGaulois]

Thank you for reminding me of that . I didn't know OnecoinScam is still alive. It was my preferred soap opera in the crypto space. I thought it died when we proved that it had no blockchain but just a database.
Someone could really make an awesome movie from it. A lot better than Bitconnect. Look like I have a lot of things to catch up with on BehindMLM.

AUSA Folly: Who mostly set up the shell companies?
Konstantin: Irina Dilkinska.
AUSA: As a Bulgarian, what did you call those who worked on this?
Konstantin: Monkeys.
AUSA: OneCoin investors sent money to these shell companies?
Konstantin: Yes.

[JollyGood]

That image reminds me how far we have come and how much has changed in crypto-land.

And thank you for link, I will be keeping an eye on from time to time: https://twitter.com/InnerCityPress

[allyouracid]

Schemes like Onecoin have always thrived because of hype. To be honest, i visited one of the 3rd world countries and in one of the towns that was evidently remote, i was so surprised to see a couple of cars moving around the street advertising onecoin on speakers as the "future of money"

The Aggressive hype and marketing model made locals around to know onecoin but nobody even talked about bitcoin.

Wow, this is indeed interesting. A decade ago or two, I had this idea that people's proneness to get scammed (or become religious extremists) is directly correlated to the amount of desperation they suffer from. So, in a first world country where most people's lives are relatively safe, economy stable, government more or less intact etc, you'll rarely see huge amounts of religious extremists burning down the country, as well as scams like the OneCoin one.

Surely, that doesn't mean that there are no OneCoin victims in the USA, in Germany, Great Britain etc, but I think it plays on a different level. Having people tout OneCoin through speakers on a car would be a rather funny incident, here. But in countries with high desperation, such things have a higher chance for success. People just cling on things which pretend to offer "some way out" if they're desperate enough, regardless of how scammy it comes across.

[JollyGood]

4.9 billion poured in a few months in a scam, bitcoin receiving pennies at that time...
One proof if we needed one more that this world is f up!

“It is a great turn-around. Somehow, I knew a day like this would come, my tears have now turned to joy. Our goal is to overtake Bitcoin and we are almost there. We are the new billionaires in town, thanks to our leader Dr. Ruja Ignatova.”

Triple facepalm!!!

I think in the press articles I read it implies $4.9 billion as actual funding they received from investors. Right now they say she is in hiding but things will be cleared up as time goes by.
What would be the point of having all that money if she looks over her shoulder for the rest of her life knowing she might be arrested if she is discovered.

I doubt anything will be cleared up more than it is already at this moment, the money is gone, the method they scammed is known, almost all the details are already known, what is left is finding her and what is left of the $. But, I doubt any will happen.
As for the second part, you will be amazed how many people will take those risks for a few hundred thousand, here we speak of millions.
Living a rich life for a few years or spend your entire life in poverty, for some the choice is obvious.

I think it will be very difficult to hide billions of USD$. There will be a trail somewhere and the first to pounce on those funds when they are located will be the US authorities.

Looking back it is hard to belive that this trash managed to close the gap on Bitcoin to the length it did.

[JollyGood]

The BBC quoted:

"Konstantin Ignatov, the brother of "missing cryptoqueen" Dr Ruja Ignatova, has admitted his role in the OneCoin crypto-currency fraud.

Ignatov pleaded guilty to several charges, including money laundering and fraud.

Investigators believe as much as £4bn was raised globally in what is said to have amounted to a Ponzi scheme.

The Bulgaria-based organisation behind OneCoin Ltd continues to operate and denies all wrongdoing.

Ignatov was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in March."


Full story here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50417908

[tmfp]

As has been said, the current NY court case is about the innocence or guilt of Mark Scott, a fairly establishment lawyer who left the large Locke Lord law firm in order to facilitate the laundering of Onecoin funds and become fat(ter) and richer.
His defense tactics seem to be to show that
1) Scott didn't know Onecoin was a scam
2) Konstantin is an unreliable witness (because of his plea deal, he's just saying anything to prove his cooperation)

Pursuant to 1), the tactic also appears to include "Innocence by Association", the theory being that if an ex-U.S. President's brother was happy to deal with Onecoin then surely it must be legit, or reasonable for Scott to assume its legitimacy.
In a world where the current U.S. President can been seen as a career and serial fraudster this might seem to be grasping at straws.
However, it must be born in mind that this is a jury trial in the U.S. where the Bush name may still retain some respect and trust.

The day ended with Scott's lawyer Arlo Devlin-Brown of Covington arguing to get into evidence a Madagascar oil deal proposal in which Scott and his entities accused of laundering loaned money related to a Madagascar oil deal involving none other than Neil Bush, the 63-year old brother of former US President George W. Bush.

THE MADAGASCAR OIL DEAL

This goes right back to the 2014 origins of Onecoin in Bigcoin. Like in most MLM frauds, the main promoters (uplines) of Bigcoin operated under an umbrella entity, in this case called Prosper Inc.
In order to give Bigcoins some sort of utility (a free market in them was out of the question) Ruja came up with the idea of the “CryptoReal Investment Trust”

The CryptoReal Investment Trust offers Propser members, who own tokens of BigCoin, to convert the tokens into shares of the CryptoReal Investment Trust.

Bigcoin fell apart soon after, morphed temporarily into BNA, which also crashed, but the core scammers had learnt a lot and duly started Onecoin.
The CrytoReal Investment Trust gathered dust for a couple of years, then was dragged out by Ruja to be the vehicle for the purchase of "Madagascar Area 3112 Oil and Gas Field" for $60million, plus an unspecified amount of Onecoin (reported unverifiably as a token one Onecoin).

Ruja's rationale was

By using OneCoins for part of the payment, this deal also reinforces the buying appeal of our cryptocurrency. At a time when traditional fiat currencies are seeing dips or stalls, it’s reassuring to put OneCoins to use – and it’s particularly exciting to spend them in a completely different sector.

In reality, whether there was one Onecoin or one million Onecoin attached to the deal, the laundering of $60m of stolen money was the real motive behind this.
And from whom did Onecoin buy this natural resource? Enter Neil Bush, Dr. Hui Chi Ming and Hoifu Energy.

(As an aside here, when we take for granted the machinations of Multi national companies and the ways in which they operate, we forget the sometimes catastrophic effect they have on people unlucky enough to live on top of or in proximity to mineral wealth. Here's a story of a Madagascan who got chewed up and spat out by 'one of China and Madagascar’s most powerful mining billionaires.')

Neil Bush has been Executive Deputy Chairman of Hoifu for seven years (exactly, today), for which he gets paid $240k a year.
He holds many of these sinecure type positions and has extensive "contacts" (thanks to his family) thru out Asia. Wherever there's a dollar (or a million) to be made, there's a Neil Bush waiting to add "respectability".
Neil Bush has also been a completely entitled asshole and waste of space his entire life.

What's my point?
The lawyer of a lawyer accused of facilitating thieves and embezzlers points to a pond life plutocrat offspring as an example of financial probity.

Edit:
Subsequent more detailed reporting from behind a paywall and summarized in Bitcoinist

Neil Bush, son of former US President George H. W. Bush, was paid $300,000 by Ruja Ignatova for attending a meeting related to her fraudulent cryptocurrency known as OneCoin

Bush recalled that the head of Hoifu Energy, Dr. Hui Chi Ming, received a bunch of cryptocurrency for an oil deal in Madagascar. Bush had a residual interest in the cryptocurrency from the oil deal. Bush met the woman from the cryptocurrency company, Ruja Ignatova, in Hong Kong with Dr. Hui.

Hui had told the former President’s son he was entitled to 10% of the deal if Hui could sell the cryptocurrency. Nevertheless, the deal failed.

Well, he wasn't alone in not being able to sell Onecoin....



Many quotes and references taken from the excellent https://behindmlm.com.
Specific references :
https://behindmlm.com/companies/onecoin/bigcoin-bna-the-original-onecoin-ponzi-points/
http://www.innercitypress.com/sdny28onecoinignatovcrim111419.html
https://www.hoifuenergy.com/eintro.html
https://www.scribd.com/document/434747259/On-OneCoin-Cooperator-Konstantin-Ignatov-s-Plea-Agreement-for-5K1-letter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Bush#cite_note-WP-12-28-03-4
https://in.reuters.com/finance/stocks/officer-profile/0007.HK/2316596

[tmfp]

As the US lawyer Mark Scott waits to hear the jury's verdict in the money laundering case where he is accused of processing $400m of money stolen by Onecoin from its investors victims, in exchange for $50m in fees (he said that his goal was 50:50, to be worth $50m by the age of 50. He's now facing 50 years in prison)



back in Sofia, the Bulgarian Mafia Removals Company are hard at work.

[TMAN]

back in Sofia, the Bulgarian Mafia Removals Company are hard at work.

I remember walking past the shop and laughing at the shitshow.. feel bad for the losers here, that's a shit ton of new money that missed crypto as a whole

[tmfp]

I remember walking past the shop and laughing at the shitshow.. feel bad for the losers here

If you mean the losers here as in in Bulgaria, Onecoin seems to have not promoted itself there harldy at all, probably on the basis that you don't shit on your own doorstep.

that's a shit ton of new money that missed crypto as a whole

but if you mean here as in the whole shitfest, yeah I agree, especially as it's gone on for so long worldwide.

[Harlot]

As the US lawyer Mark Scott waits to hear the jury's verdict in the money laundering case where he is accused of processing $400m of money stolen by Onecoin from its investors victims, in exchange for $50m in fees (he said that his goal was 50:50, to be worth $50m by the age of 50. He's now facing 50 years in prison)

Serves him right for being an accomplice of such crime. For Mark Scott I do think he deserves the maximum punishment of 50 years since he have helped the scam to launder the money and with one of their accomplices being a key witness against them I think that their chances of getting away with their white collar crime is nearly down to zero. And it seems to me that the crackdown against OneCoin's associates and their assets is still not over yet and I don't think not one of them would escape the judicial system.

[dkbit98]

Question regarding this OneCoin scam:
- Do owners have some known Bitcoin or other crypto addresses they used?

[tmfp]

Question regarding this OneCoin scam:
- Do owners have some known Bitcoin or other crypto addresses they used?

As you can see from the money laundering case going on, the hi up scammers were only interested in fiat and hiding it; I don't think they even understood real crypto and don't seem to have thought of using it to launder their proceeds. Quite ironic really....
So I say no, but I'll check and see what I can find.
I say no also because the vast majority of Onecoin victims were crypto illiterate, seduced into parting with their fiat money by hi pressure MLM salesmanship and FOMO, as crypto was sold to them as the "new opportunity."
We're talking about the man in the street and his relatives and friends being ripped off here, trusting advice from people who they shouldn't have and handing over hard earned cash.
Buying the dream.....

[TMAN]

I remember walking past the shop and laughing at the shitshow.. feel bad for the losers here

If you mean the losers here as in in Bulgaria, Onecoin seems to have not promoted itself there harldy at all, probably on the basis that you don't shit on your own doorstep.

that's a shit ton of new money that missed crypto as a whole

but if you mean here as in the whole shitfest, yeah I agree, especially as it's gone on for so long worldwide.

I meant as a whole. And it was promoted plenty in BG, but there is a long history of Ponzi schemes in Bg

[tmfp]

Scott has just been found guilty on both counts, money laundering and wire fraud.
The DA want to bang him up straight away, pending sentencing, as a flee risk.

We learned last night Mark Scott has tried to sell a third Porsche that is subject to a seizure order. He's part of a network of co-conspirators one of whom has completed disappeared.

Thanks to https://twitter.com/innercitypress/status/1197589713315663872 for the live updates.

[electronicash]

Question regarding this OneCoin scam:
- Do owners have some known Bitcoin or other crypto addresses they used?

As you can see from the money laundering case going on, the hi up scammers were only interested in fiat and hiding it; I don't think they even understood real crypto and don't seem to have thought of using it to launder their proceeds. Quite ironic really....
So I say no, but I'll check and see what I can find.
I say no also because the vast majority of Onecoin victims were crypto illiterate, seduced into parting with their fiat money by hi pressure MLM salesmanship and FOMO, as crypto was sold to them as the "new opportunity."
We're talking about the man in the street and his relatives and friends being ripped off here, trusting advice from people who they shouldn't have and handing over hard earned cash.
Buying the dream.....

which I also doubt there are users out there that invested to it. unless they are also one of those crypto illiterate.

this type of scam have been around for years yet people still are sending money to them. most of the victims are usually those who thought facebook is the internet. most of the time these scammers are found in facebook. none of the literate also advice them because mots of the time the knowledgeable ones in crypto are not in facebook. 

[suchmoon]

~

So let me get this straight. Dude gets caught for money laundering. Then tries to sell a Porsche for "day to day expense". Wasn't a very good launderer, was he? If he didn't have even a few grand stashed somewhere. So here's some hope that he left a truckload of breadcrumbs.

[tmfp]

~

So let me get this straight. Dude gets caught for money laundering. Then tries to sell a Porsche for "day to day expense". Wasn't a very good launderer, was he? If he didn't have even a few grand stashed somewhere. So here's some hope that he left a truckload of breadcrumbs.

He was smug, thought he was untouchable until the Feds turned up and froze everything.
Well, nearly everything....

How was he able to maintain his lifestyle after the arrest... who was spending 100,000$ a month on credit card?

He got away without going down till sentencing. Wears an ankle bracelet, only allowed to live in one home lol.

Oh and

...His lawyer.. says Scott's mother has terminal cancer.

[tmfp]

Question regarding this OneCoin scam:
- Do owners have some known Bitcoin or other crypto addresses they used?

Here's one from a 2016 YT vid about how to buy Gift Codes



Received over 2000BTC, still being used.


The money laundering fallout continues, based on Konstantin's testimony that

“Amer Abdulaziz, after he stole €100m from OneCoin, he started buying racehorses for, like, €25m. [He was] one of the main money-launderers for Ruja.”

AA has been very hi profile in the thoroughbred horse breeding/racing business and the Racing Post makes a fair summary of things

Dubai-based Abdulaziz, 56, launched Phoenix Thoroughbreds in 2017 as the “world’s first regulated thoroughbred fund” and has since become one of the most high-profile figures in international racing and bloodstock, often flexing the significant financial muscle of his fund at the sales and through private purchases.

Abdulaziz has never disclosed who his investors are – citing a desire to protect his client base – other than to say they are “non-racing people”.  

Apart from Konstantin's testimony, the convicted Mark Scott also referred to Phoenix's money laundering role in his very ill advised post arrest "interview" with the Feds.

the first agreement at the
behest of the investors is called Phoenix something Investment
Fund, I think just Phoenix. And then, umm, and I have the name of
the guy that I dealt with, that I was directed to in my emails and
what. I’m going to say, Amar [phonetic] something

Scott: We paid back about umm, to Phoenix was about 190 I would say.
Somewhere around there.
7:45:11 Agent Eckel And you said the 290 million went in. What happened to the other
100 million…

Phoenix have tweeted a "categorically deny blahblahblah"


Konstantin actually listed three main money laundering names in relation to Gilbert Armenta (Ruja's squeeze and main man, now turned state's evidence)

Mark Scott, Amer Abdulaziz and Alex Ortega

Alex Ortega? That name rings a bell from Mt Gox's insolvency, when he offered 10% for account balances.
His "Iverson Capital" vehicle is self described as

Special Opportunity Professionals

A fairly common name tho, over 1300 on Linkedin alone. My lawyer says I'm sure it's not him.

[magneto]

It's absolutely crazy the extent that this scam has gone to and how widespread it is. I was talking to a taxi driver one day, and he said that even some of his relatives are sucked into Onecoin thinking that it's some secret path to riches.

It's good to see legal actions being taken against these people. But obviously the scammed proceeds cannot be all recouped.

These ponzis with some element of MLMs, whether Bitconnect, Onecoin, etc. are the most dangerous of them all, because it plays so well on human emotion and greed.

[JollyGood]

I remember walking past the shop and laughing at the shitshow.. feel bad for the losers here

If you mean the losers here as in in Bulgaria, Onecoin seems to have not promoted itself there harldy at all, probably on the basis that you don't shit on your own doorstep.

that's a shit ton of new money that missed crypto as a whole

but if you mean here as in the whole shitfest, yeah I agree, especially as it's gone on for so long worldwide.

The tragedy of the story is that even today some people refuse to accept it is a scam. They have been sucked in to the whole drama and will never see it as a scam until or unless they lose their invest but it will be too late by then

[stompix]

Oh and

...His lawyer.. says Scott's mother has terminal cancer.

I was once drinking with a few friends from work and a guy from Romania who was somehow related to one of my colleagues.
He was talking about how all the things are bad there, road, healthcare, education, etc etc, but he said they have the best doctors in the world in the prison system.  All the people that end up in jail, once they get to though the health checks are discovered to suffer from tens of health problems, is almost incredible how many people who a few weeks ago were dancing at parties have all their organs affected by something.

If you ever have doubts you suffer from something, go there he said! 

About the horse racing....grrr! It seems like they've already got some 300k in prize money in the UK and far more in Australia. They even managed to get two group one winners.
Crap, this is worse than Altior getting beaten a week ago!!!

So let me get this straight. Dude gets caught for money laundering. Then tries to sell a Porsche for "day to day expense". Wasn't a very good launderer, was he? If he didn't have even a few grand stashed somewhere. So here's some hope that he left a truckload of breadcrumbs.

I think he lost the privatekeys to his onecoin wallet....
 

[Fran435]

"Onecoin, a scam? What madness! Onecoin boosts my purchasing power every day! I use my Onecoins to do a lot of shopping on Dealshaker. Restaurants, hotels, wellness, clothing, shoes, cupcakes, etc. . . For Christmas, my gifts, I find Dealshaker and it's good for my finances! Even at the garage, I pay in Onecoins!




 

[Fran435]

One life is amazing! it changed my life; thanks Dr Ruja you're a visionary

[Fran435]

I could never have thought that it would be possible to pay for a car with a digital currency. Thanks to Onecoin and Dealshaker, I found the car I was looking for! Onecoin, it works!

[tmfp]

cupcakes

"Onecoin, a scam? What madness! Onecoin boosts my purchasing power every day! I use my Onecoins to do a lot of shopping on Dealshaker. Restaurants, hotels, wellness, clothing, shoes, cupcakes, etc. . . For Christmas, my gifts, I find Dealshaker and it's good for my finances! Even at the garage, I pay in Onecoins!

One life is amazing! it changed my life; thanks Dr Ruja you're a visionary

I could never have thought that it would be possible to pay for a car with a digital currency. Thanks to Onecoin and Dealshaker, I found the car I was looking for! Onecoin, it works!

Hahaha.
This is a reference to the "DealShaker" merchant platform that Onecoin launched.
It was full of Eastern European used car salesmen who will "preorder" a car for you (that you will never see) for a payment of euros plus some Onestuff, Russian off plan villas and Chinese timeshares.
It's completely broken now that the Onecoin admin have been arrested, but never worked in the first place.
Sorry for your loss Fran. (Not really.)

[JeromeTash]

"Onecoin, a scam? What madness! Onecoin boosts my purchasing power every day! I use my Onecoins to do a lot of shopping on Dealshaker. Restaurants, hotels, wellness, clothing, shoes, cupcakes, etc. . . For Christmas, my gifts, I find Dealshaker and it's good for my finances! Even at the garage, I pay in Onecoins!

^^^ Here comes a brand-new One coin scam shill account. What a stupid move 
You just earned yourself some negative feedback.

[tmfp]

^^^ Here comes a brand-new One coin scam shill account. What a stupid move 
You just earned yourself some negative feedback.

I didn't bother. They've got enough problems. 

[tmfp]

Onecoin, a scam? What madness! Onecoin boosts my purchasing power every day! I use my
Onecoins to do a lot of shopping on Dealshaker. Restaurants, hotels, wellness,
clothing, shoes, cupcakes, etc. . . For Christmas, my gifts, I find them on Dealshaker
and it's good for my finances! Even at the garage, I pay in Onecoins!

Hahaha and sad too.
Keep bumping the scam thread guys

[JollyGood]

Not much to say here except that I added these two sock-puppet accounts to my IGNORE list 

"Onecoin, a scam? What madness! Onecoin boosts my purchasing power every day! I use my Onecoins to do a lot of shopping on Dealshaker. Restaurants, hotels, wellness, clothing, shoes, cupcakes, etc. . . For Christmas, my gifts, I find Dealshaker and it's good for my finances! Even at the garage, I pay in Onecoins!

Onecoin, a scam? What madness! Onecoin boosts my purchasing power every day! I use my
Onecoins to do a lot of shopping on Dealshaker. Restaurants, hotels, wellness,
clothing, shoes, cupcakes, etc. . . For Christmas, my gifts, I find them on Dealshaker
and it's good for my finances! Even at the garage, I pay in Onecoins!

[logfiles]

an article says onecoin is not a scam : https://www.wjsnews.com/crypto/onecoin-is-not-a-scam/

Oooh yeah, genius!!!
Did you also know that water is not wet?
A youtube video here says water is not wet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugyqOSUlR2A

Have fun  

[JollyGood]

an article says onecoin is not a scam : https://www.wjsnews.com/crypto/onecoin-is-not-a-scam/

Oooh yeah, genius!!!
Did you also know that water is not wet?
A youtube video here says water is not wet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugyqOSUlR2A

Have fun  

Well words and concepts such as water is not wet really deserve a medal. That video is totally bonkers, I got dizzy spells watching it. It is absolutely one of those videos that should have a health warning shows before it starts playing   

On a more sombre note, I wonder what 2020 will bring for Onecoin and those investors that lost (or stand to lose) all their investment. Maybe this year the self-styled cryptoqueen will be arrested and brought to trial. The idea she will remain hidden for another year no matter how many billions of USD$ the scam might have made and no matter how many hundreds of millions she may have embezzled by siphoning-off.

[eddie13]

This scam is so old and so obvious, I ran across a meme..



It even has it's own counterparty asset to prove ownership..

I have 1081 of them of 856290000 issued and they are probably worth more than onecoins, lol..

Want a few @JollyGood ?
Post me a BTC addy and I'll send you a few when I get it straightened back out..

[hacker1001101001]

I remember one guy IRL, he told me 1+ year ago about this Onecoin shit and said it is something to be invested upon. He was a person with very less crypto knowledge but got caught up into this Onecoin thing due to the bull run effect I guess, he was suggesting some very catchy but spammy offer which I just ignored debating upon, due to his imaginary price increase and future profits debate's. Was just thinking what he would be doing with those OneCoins he bought, not talked with him from an year or so. I am sure he would be crying at it and at not taking my advice back then, but would see !  

It seems they have accumulated hell lot of money from involving less crypto knowledgeable peoples in promoting them, hopefully I don't have any proves of so, but the above incident could be an indication of many more people around the world getting trapped into such.

This scam is so old and so obvious, I ran across a meme..

I even get how old that meme would be LOL!

[maggalder12]

Beware of OneCoin, they are a well known scam. Fortunately, I was able to get it back with help from a Recovery Pro.  You can reach me if you have also lost money in binary options and cryptocurrency trading, you will recover everything you lost. maggiealder12 {at} gmail,com

[hacker1001101001]

Beware of OneCoin, they are a well known scam. Fortunately, I was able to get it back with help from a Recovery Pro.  You can reach me if you have also lost money in binary options and cryptocurrency trading, you will recover everything you lost. maggiealder12 {at} gmail,com

WTF ! Are you saying you are able to get money back to all those who lost fund's in Onecoin? It looks more like scam on a scam.

[ChuckBuck]

Beware of OneCoin, they are a well known scam. Fortunately, I was able to get it back with help from a Recovery Pro.  You can reach me if you have also lost money in binary options and cryptocurrency trading, you will recover everything you lost. maggiealder12 {at} gmail,com

What the hell are you talking about?  LOL This guy is introducing a service for another people to get back the money that they were cheated. It's like a kid's joke. Or is this just a scam? After someone e-mailed him to ask about it, he would say: "If you send me $ 10, I'll show you how to get the full refund." Or anything like that  A silly way to get money 

[Twinkledoe]

Beware of OneCoin, they are a well known scam. Fortunately, I was able to get it back with help from a Recovery Pro.  You can reach me if you have also lost money in binary options and cryptocurrency trading, you will recover everything you lost. maggiealder12 {at} gmail,com

What the hell are you talking about?  LOL This guy is introducing a service for another people to get back the money that they were cheated. It's like a kid's joke. Or is this just a scam? After someone e-mailed him to ask about it, he would say: "If you send me $ 10, I'll show you how to get the full refund." Or anything like that  A silly way to get money 

I think it is 100% scam. How can they recover your lost funds from this project? Do they have magic formula or are they practicing witchcraft? If someone will fall into this scam, no wonder he had been scammed by this OneCoin project.

[ChuckBuck]

I think it is 100% scam. How can they recover your lost funds from this project? Do they have magic formula or are they practicing witchcraft? If someone will fall into this scam, no wonder he had been scammed by this OneCoin project.

No relationship between these two problem, guy  So far, if there was no news coverage in the media, if this fact were not exposed, would you know that Onecoin is a scam? I'm sure you still think it is a great project, a great money, even for other investors  Every year, there's always a huge project that's exposed fraud, repeatedly. Compared to Onecoin, that guy is just a grain of sand 

[JollyGood]

This scam is so old and so obvious, I ran across a meme..



It even has it's own counterparty asset to prove ownership..

I have 1081 of them of 856290000 issued and they are probably worth more than onecoins, lol..

Want a few @JollyGood ?
Post me a BTC addy and I'll send you a few when I get it straightened back out..

I have to say this is funny, if those 1081 you offered to donate were Bitcoin I would bite your hand off literally 

... but just spare a thought for the thousands of investors that fell for this scam and in the process lost everything including those that borrowed money from banks as loans just because they believed in this.

On a serious note, there are people even now saying that they believe whole-heartedly that Onecoin is not a scam and there negative news including the legal proceedings and judgement against Konstantin Ignatov (brother of Ruja Ignatova, the founder of OneCoin and self-styled Crypto Queen) is just a misunderstanding even though he entered in to a plea bargain and will not testify against anything OneCoin related - either that or he faced a maximum of 90 years in jail !

I hope the sooner all this comes to an end the sooner the investors can come to terms with their losses and with time hopefully move on.

[game-protect]

OneCoin is a scam because it does not have a blockchain to transfer its coin!

[nutildah]

I was just browsing through old ANNs to randomly bump to the top of the page (admittedly I'm a bit bored at the moment), and I found the first announcement for OneCoin:

OneCoin-The New CryptoCurrency That Will OverPass Bitcoin

Its locked so I can't bump it unfortunately, but it had already been pointed out as a Ponzi scam 3 months earlier by BehindMLM... Over 1,300 comments underneath the article.

One of the comments in the ANN thread says,

...  in 5 years from now probably no one will remember this coin

Well, they were wrong!  

No need to harass the thread creator and OneCoin promoter... he is an active account, but it probably changed hands sometime through the years... Maybe he locked it after realizing it was a Ponzi scheme.

[tmfp]

I was just browsing through old ANNs to randomly bump to the top of the page (admittedly I'm a bit bored at the moment), and I found the first announcement for OneCoin:
OneCoin-The New CryptoCurrency That Will OverPass Bitcoin
....edited..
No need to harass the thread creator and OneCoin promoter...... Maybe he locked it after realizing it was a Ponzi scheme.

Yeah, the last post in that thread was by psy112; we had a few words about Onecoin and came to an agreement...... 

[JollyGood]

I was just browsing through old ANNs to randomly bump to the top of the page (admittedly I'm a bit bored at the moment), and I found the first announcement for OneCoin:

OneCoin-The New CryptoCurrency That Will OverPass Bitcoin

Its locked so I can't bump it unfortunately, but it had already been pointed out as a Ponzi scam 3 months earlier by BehindMLM... Over 1,300 comments underneath the article.

One of the comments in the ANN thread says,

...  in 5 years from now probably no one will remember this coin

Well, they were wrong!  

No need to harass the thread creator and OneCoin promoter... he is an active account, but it probably changed hands sometime through the years... Maybe he locked it after realizing it was a Ponzi scheme.

Feel free to post in any of my threads whenever you feel bored. You always provide helpful insights and great advice so most welcome here friend  

Regarding the link, I read this and it made me chuckle: ”URGENT” Its important that you read this as it is going to have an affect in your future

Seems almost as dramatic an announcement as the crypto queen Ruja Ignatova walking on to the stage at Wembley Arena, London to make that dramatic entrance.

Dr Ruja Ignatova - apparently she is a PhD graduate in European Private Law from a university in Germany, which is where she settled with her family. They moved from Bulgaria when she was 10 years old.

She claims she studied at Oxford University in the UK as well. I would not be surprised if she really had no qualifications whatsoever and fabricated her education along with her crypto queen persona. She and her OneCoin will always be remembered for all the wrong reasons throughout history.

[tmfp]

It's premature to talk of Onecoin in the past tense, a scheme of this size won't just quietly stop and go away with the arrest or disappearance of a handful of hi profile early promoters and organizers.
Apart from in the U.S., international regulatory and crime agency response has been abysmally ineffective.
Various acronym'd bodies have released standard "warnings" but there appears to be little will on behalf of investigators to coordinate internationally, either thru disinterest, lack of resources or even corruption (here's looking at you, Bulgaria) and chase down the MLMtrash who still travel the world promoting this and other scams with seeming impunity.

Ari Widell has been following and documenting the scam for years now.
His latest blog post makes it clear that, although some IMA's have publically and contritely walked away from Onecoin, there's a determined rump of organizers hell bent on wringing the last drop out of Onecoin and the DealShaker invention, and a substantial number of invested-up-to-their-necks-and-beyond scammers willing to spread conspiracy theories and lies in order to attract new victims, even now.

https://kusetukset.blogspot.com/2020/01/onecoin-meet-new-manager.html?

A young Ugandan man who saw the light, tweets

Daniel Leinhardt@DanielLeinhardt

OK.  so onelife is distributing free laptops and tablets to schools accepting Onecoins as a method of payment in Uganda!!

Daniel Leinhardt@DanielLeinhardt

Onecoin admin is communicating almost twice a week now. With dealshaker updates and communications and alerts and events everywhere. The aim is to prove how there blockchainless coins are into use.
" How far can a fake technology be forced to work, how long can this last!

[JollyGood]

This link surprisingly has a lot of information about the scam: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OneCoin

The money trail must be very long for this multi-billion scam but eventually investigators will get the bulk of it, they almost always do.

It's premature to talk of Onecoin in the past tense, a scheme of this size won't just quietly stop and go away with the arrest or disappearance of a handful of hi profile early promoters and organizers.
Apart from in the U.S., international regulatory and crime agency response has been abysmally ineffective.
Various acronym'd bodies have released standard "warnings" but there appears to be little will on behalf of investigators to coordinate internationally, either thru disinterest, lack of resources or even corruption (here's looking at you, Bulgaria) and chase down the MLMtrash who still travel the world promoting this and other scams with seeming impunity.

Ari Widell has been following and documenting the scam for years now.
His latest blog post makes it clear that, although some IMA's have publically and contritely walked away from Onecoin, there's a determined rump of organizers hell bent on wringing the last drop out of Onecoin and the DealShaker invention, and a substantial number of invested-up-to-their-necks-and-beyond scammers willing to spread conspiracy theories and lies in order to attract new victims, even now.

https://kusetukset.blogspot.com/2020/01/onecoin-meet-new-manager.html?

A young Ugandan man who saw the light, tweets

Daniel Leinhardt@DanielLeinhardt

OK.  so onelife is distributing free laptops and tablets to schools accepting Onecoins as a method of payment in Uganda!!

Daniel Leinhardt@DanielLeinhardt

Onecoin admin is communicating almost twice a week now. With dealshaker updates and communications and alerts and events everywhere. The aim is to prove how there blockchainless coins are into use.
" How far can a fake technology be forced to work, how long can this last!

[eddie13]

if those ... were Bitcoin

They kindof are, little bits of mutilated BTC..

Apart from in the U.S., international regulatory and crime agency response has been abysmally ineffective.

What are they going to do? Ban all speak of onecoin from the internets?

The worst of it I have seen has been on Facebook where their are armies of scam/mlm reposters of all sorts of terrible "cryptocurrency" schemes, and FB just allows it..
I don't know exactly how stupid you have to be to buy into these things shilled by obvious spammers, but I guess their are plenty..

[tmfp]

Apart from in the U.S., international regulatory and crime agency response has been abysmally ineffective.

What are they going to do? Ban all speak of onecoin from the internets?

They could start by enforcing various existing national laws regarding misrepresentation for financial gain i.e. fraud, outright theft, tax evasion, money laundering and bribery, and then have a look at the way in which senior political figures, lawyers and bureaucrats around the world actively or passively enabled Onecoin over a period of six years.

I don't know exactly how stupid you have to be to buy into these things

or they could just victim blame.

[JollyGood]

In a general manner (but more specific to OneCoin) Facebook and Twitter must be the worst offenders, they can allow their users to post any propaganda. There is freedom of speech and so on but there is also something else to consider: promoting a scam/ponzi

It would be harsh to completely lay the blame at these types of companies for not stopping the armies of trolls or paid shills but what is the alternative? If they have multiple reports about a particular user or a post/tweet then they should look in to it with a possible outcome of removing the post/tweet or banning the associated user account.

And yes, there definitely are plenty of people that get duped - sadly that is the way it goes. It seems it will continue with no real sign of slowing down.

Apart from in the U.S., international regulatory and crime agency response has been abysmally ineffective.

What are they going to do? Ban all speak of onecoin from the internets?

The worst of it I have seen has been on Facebook where their are armies of scam/mlm reposters of all sorts of terrible "cryptocurrency" schemes, and FB just allows it..
I don't know exactly how stupid you have to be to buy into these things shilled by obvious spammers, but I guess their are plenty..

[JayJuanGee]

In a general manner (but more specific to OneCoin) Facebook and Twitter must be the worst offenders, they can allow their users to post any propaganda. There is freedom of speech and so on but there is also something else to consider: promoting a scam/ponzi

It would be harsh to completely lay the blame at these types of companies for not stopping the armies of trolls or paid shills but what is the alternative? If they have multiple reports about a particular user or a post/tweet then they should look in to it with a possible outcome of removing the post/tweet or banning the associated user account.

And yes, there definitely are plenty of people that get duped - sadly that is the way it goes. It seems it will continue with no real sign of slowing down.

Apart from in the U.S., international regulatory and crime agency response has been abysmally ineffective.

What are they going to do? Ban all speak of onecoin from the internets?

The worst of it I have seen has been on Facebook where their are armies of scam/mlm reposters of all sorts of terrible "cryptocurrency" schemes, and FB just allows it..
I don't know exactly how stupid you have to be to buy into these things shilled by obvious spammers, but I guess their are plenty..

Maybe I have to read a bit more about this, but I have difficulties understanding how the finances worked, who had the money?  And how would have Ruja Ignatova been able to disappear with anything between $1billion and $4billion? 

[tmfp]

Maybe I have to read a bit more about this, but I have difficulties understanding how the finances worked, who had the money?  And how would have Ruja Ignatova been able to disappear with anything between $1billion and $4billion? 

In order to answer that question, you have to understand how large scale MLM schemes work: to a certain extent they are decentraized, as strange as that may seem in an inherently pyramid structure.
Very briefly, there is a project.
The developers may be independent, may be hired to expand on a recognized opportunity (see crypto) and the word goes out amongst IMA's (Independent Marketing Associates) who have their own ad hoc marketing structures in place, a ready made sales force.
The New Big Thing: get out there and sell it. And sell it again.
These top IMA's are known by rank dependent on how big a downline they bring to the party. And they do their own thing, using the centralized admin structure, create their own websites (See BitClub Network's different versions) and take a rake of every sucker's buy in money.
Around 60% of total revenue into an MLM scheme ends up with them and their lieutenants.
They run seminars, charge for anything and everything, sell positions in the matrix for cash, anything to make hay while the sun shines.
So that of, say, $2b that went into Onecoin in one way or another, over $1b went to those "Black Diamonds" "Blue Emeralds" etc. likely never to be seen again.
These are the guys with the gold Rolls Royces and Rolexes, flying round the world staying in 5* hotels, saying "You can live like me, just give me your money."
A number of the OneCoin high rollers are still living the high life in "relaxed" financial regimes around the world. And, of course, looking over their shoulders for Interpol (not so much) and Gangstas with $5 wrenches.
And whole communities are reduced to (even more) debt because they trusted their "friends", in some cases their local religious ministers and random people on the Internet.

Here's some of the top brass of Onecoin partying at the V&A Museum in London 2016.
Most of the people in the video made millions and have since moved on to other MLM scams.  Two are in jail in the U.S.
It was Ignatova's birthday.
She paid aging pop singer Tom Jones £250k to sing for her. Knowing the way Tom is, he didn't take Onecoin.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=79d4ej3xhUk



The waves from Onecoin's demise are continuing to swamp various boats.
The bent money laundering lawyer Mark Scott (see previous posts) incriminated a guy called Robert Courtneidge thru emails revealed in his case. They were both partners at Locke Lord an American BigLaw firm.
They both left Locke Lord, Scott to launder Onecoin central funds (what was left after the IMA's had taken their cut) for the Ignatova's and Courtneidge to become a Director at ePayment Systems in the UK, a processor with offices in London's swanky (love that word) Mayfair and about £100m in the system when BANG...the FCA shut them down on Feb 11th.

Whether this is based solely on what came out at Scott's trial or whether there some plea bargaining and giving up going on, I don't know.

Sources:
https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2020/02/14/1581687078000/What-s-going-on-at-e-money-firm-ePayments-Systems–/
https://behindmlm.com/companies/onecoin/onecoin-at-the-heart-of-epayments-systems-shutdown/#more-54572

[SektionF]

Swedish and other Nordic papers are writing very much about this at the moment. They claim/suspect that "Sebastian Greenwood" from Sweden was the mastermind behind the whole thing. Facing up to 20 years jail in USA the newspapers says. I read on a Swedish forum that when he was younger he ran scams like selling fake ID Cards etc..

This man is going after them. "Won´t give up until everyone is in jail" - https://twitter.com/MrBitcoinNorway

I haven´t read very much about this whole OneCoin thing, but it´s all over the news in the Northern countries now, hard to miss.