Karl Sebastian Greenwood, one of many co-founders behind the infamous crypto scheme OneCoin, has been sentenced to twenty years in jail, in keeping with the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York on Sept. 12.
Authorities mentioned Greenwood labored with the infamous fugitive Ruja Ignatova, often known as “Cryptoqeen,” on OneCoin, which introduced in additional than $4 billion of investments beginning in 2014.
They added that Greenwood was accountable for conceptualizing OneCoin’s multi-level advertising and marketing (MLM) construction, noting that he acted as a “world grasp distributor” and chief for the scheme. By commissions, Greenwood personally earned 5% of month-to-month OneCoin gross sales and in the end gained $300 million from the scheme. He later spent tens of millions of {dollars} on private gadgets, luxurious resorts, and journey.
Authorities emphasised that Greenwood and Ignatova typically in contrast OneCoin to Bitcoin regardless of the fraudulent nature of their very own providing. Greenwood and others falsely claimed that OneCoin’s worth was based mostly on provide and demand when, in reality, its supposed worth was truly set arbitrarily by the OneCoin staff.
The workplace additionally mentioned that Greenwood lied about features of OneCoin, together with non-existent mining swimming pools and blockchains. Greenwood and Ignatova explicitly allotted “faux cash” to buyers of their personal messages, in keeping with authorities.
Greenwood was arrested in Thailand in July 2018 and was extradited to the U.S. in October 2018. He was convicted on varied prices in December 2022. Along with serving his 20-year jail sentence, he pays $300 million in forfeiture.
Different OneCoin associates at giant, on trial
The U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace famous that Ignatova, the central determine behind OneCoin, confronted prices in 2017 however stays at giant and is now on the FBI’s High Ten Most Needed Checklist. She can be on an identical European needed record. Enforcement companies haven’t verified current reviews suggesting that Igantova was murdered in 2018.
One other OneCoin member, Frank Schneider, was set to endure trial in December 2022. Nevertheless, current reviews counsel that he disappeared previous to extradition to the U.S.
Different individuals within the scheme are in varied levels of prosecution. Irina Dilkinska confronted prices in March 2023; Christopher Hamilton confronted extradition in late 2022 and is at the moment preventing the extradition order; Mark Scott was convicted in 2019.
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