Attorney Mark Scott insists he had no idea of OneCoin’s alleged unlawful activities
Scott is accused of having engaged in a scheme to launder approximately $400 million of OneCoin proceeds.
The criminal proceedings against the individuals associated with notorious cryptocurrency scheme OneCoin continue at the New York Southern District Court. The list of defendants includes Konstantin Ignatov, the leader of OneCoin, his sister – Ruja Ignatova, as well as Mark S. Scott, a U.S. citizen and attorney.
On Monday, June 17, 2019, Mark Scott sought to once again challenge the criminal action against him.
Scott, who was employed for a portion of the relevant time period as a partner at an international law firm, is accused of having organized, owned, operated a series of investment funds known as the “Fenero Funds,” which he used for the purpose of laundering OneCoin fraud proceeds. Scott is alleged to have engaged in a scheme to launder approximately $400 million of OneCoin proceeds through the Fenero Funds and related entities between approximately 2016 and 2018.
Ultimately, according to the allegations against Scott, he transferred millions of dollars of OneCoin proceeds into the United States for his own personal use, including to purchase multi-million dollar homes, a yacht, and luxury cars.
On August 21, 2018, a Grand Jury sitting in the Southern District of New York returned a sealed one-count indictment, charging Scott with conspiracy to commit money laundering. The Indictment alleges that from at least 2016 through 2018, the defendant conspired to conceal the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of approximately $400 million in proceeds of a pyramid scheme involving a purported cryptocurrency known as ‘OneCoin.’
On September 5, 2018, federal agents arrested Scott in Barnstable, Massachusetts, and the Indictment was unsealed. The same day, filter team agents executed judicially authorized search warrants at the defendant’s residences in Massachusetts and Florida, and recovered numerous electronic devices, hard copy documents, watches, handbags, and jewelry, among other items, pursuant to those search warrants.
On Monday, June 17, 2019, Scott filed a document with the Court trying to once again challenge the allegations against him.
According to Scott, the indictment in this case presents a real notice issue because he is being called upon to defend years of his conduct and his business dealings with a large array of individuals in various counties. Scott insists he truly does not have adequate notice of how he supposedly conspired to launder money.
Further, he notes that the Government’s affidavits fail to establish probable cause that Scott knew the funds in question were fraudulently obtained.
Finally, Scott says that the US Government attempts to apply what it believes it now knows about OneCoin to argue that Scott knew of such unlawful activity several years ago. The government has informed the Court that it has investigated this conduct for years. According to the defendant, the Government may now be in possession of incriminating information about the founders of OneCoin. However, the government has not shown those facts were known by Mark Scott at the time.
Trial in the lawsuit targeting Scott is scheduled to commence on October 7, 2019.
