Alleged Leader of OneCoin Ponzi Has Sentencing for Money Laundering Adjourned

ripplesuit
8 July 2020

One of the key figures alleged to be behind the massive crypto fraud OneCoin has again had his sentencing control date adjourned.

  • Konstantin Ignatov was expected to be sentenced on Wednesday.
  • Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss asked for the date to be moved by four months because Ignatov's cooperation with prosecutors is still in progress, according to a court filing dated July 7.
  • It appears the request has been granted, as Judge Edgardo Ramos at the District Court of the Southern District of New York is now presiding over a different case on the same time slot, Inner City Press pointed out.
  • No official court order has yet been filed on the matter.
  • Four sealed documents were filed last month, on June 16, relating to Ignatov and the OneCoin Ponzi scheme.
  • Ignatov was arrested by U.S. prosecutors in New York in March 2019 for his high-level involvement in the Ponzi scheme which is said to have stolen billions of dollars stolen from investors.
  • He is accused by U.S. prosecutors of acting as the personal assistant to Ruja Ignatova, OneCoin's top leader who is currently on the run from law enforcement. He is also her brother.
  • Konstantin has already had his sentencing adjourned from April 8, again to allow his cooperation to be completed.
  • He faces 90 years in prison, even after a plea deal on multiple counts of money laundering.
  • A jury convicted OneCoin's Lawyer Mark Scott on charges of fraud in November 2019 after it was revealed he laundered $400 million for the scheme.
  • Konstantin's testimony played a key role in the conviction.
  • Last Friday, a Singapore man was fined $72,000 after he was found guilty for promoting OneCoin based on the country's Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Selling (Prohibition) Act, 2000.

See also: Crypto Scams Targeting Pacific Communities on the Rise, Say New Zealand Regulators