Mark S. Scott was convicted on November 21, 2019, for condemning wire fraud and bank fraud with his connections. He conspired to launder $400 million with OneCoin. Per a recent letter submitted to the New York District Court, the US government is seeking forfeiture of $392.9 million for the crime.
According to the letter, the government is seeking forfeiture of $393,940,000, which will be part of the previously announced sentence of Mark Scott. The verdict was announced by Honourable Edgardo Ramos.
How did he Do It?
According to Geoffrey S. Berman, who is a Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney, Scott’s connection with equity firm Locke Lord LLP along with his knowledge from being a corporate lawyer, helped him scheme and launder millions of dollars. Berman also commented that for his elaborate fraudulent and successive crypto scheme he received a share of $50 million.
The “OneCoin” pyramid scheme was founded by Ruja Ignatova. Scott came in contact with her (Ruja) in 2015, and the laundering proceeded till 2016. In this period, OneCoin generated $3.980 billion in sales, along with a whopping profit of $3.83 billion.
Based on evidence received in the trial, the government believes that Scott was involved in laundering a large amount of sum through various shell corporations and bank accounts that were owned by him. Through various indictments and various hearings now the government is sure that $400 million was just a part of the sum that Scott laundered conspiring with OneCoin and there is more to be discovered. For the same, the US government is pushing for a post-conviction restraining order to continue the matter.
Role of OneCoin
OneCoin had claimed that they mine their Crypto coins through servers maintained by the company and their price depends on the market supply and demand ( as it should have been). But in fact, they do not mine their coins, and the value was decided internally. This was the very reason Coin’s value grew from $0.59 to $35.52 by January 2019.
Based on all the facts and trails to date, the US government is pushing for the post-conviction order. One can note that the Sentencing of Scott is scheduled for October 9, 2020.
