NY Court adjourns sentencing of OneCoin co-conspirator
The sentencing of Mark Scott is adjourned to April 22, 2020.
Judge Edgardo Ramos of the New York Southern District Court has granted the request of Mark Scott, one of the individuals involved in cryptocurrency scam OneCoin, to have his sentencing postponed.
As per the order, seen by FinanceFeeds, the sentencing is adjourned to April 22, 2020.
The sentencing of Mark Scott, who was convicted on November 21, 2019 on two counts, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit bank fraud, was initially set for February 21, 2020. However, the current deadline for Scott to file any Rule 29 and Rule 33 motions (that is the motions for retrial and acquittal) is February 3, 2020, and the Government has been given until February 24, 2020 to respond.
In light of these upcoming deadlines, the defense requested that the Court adjourn the sentencing date. This additional time is poised to allow for the completion briefing on post-trial motions and to provide the Court with an opportunity for review. Also, this additional time will permit counsel to prepare for sentencing.
Scott, a former equity partner at the law firm Locke Lord LLP, laundered approximately $400 million in proceeds of OneCoin through fraudulent investment funds that he set up and operated for that purpose. He was paid more than $50 million for his money laundering services, which he used to buy luxury cars, a yacht, and several seaside homes.
Beginning in 2016, Scott formed a series of fake private equity investment funds in the British Virgin Islands known as the “Fenero Funds.” He then disguised incoming transfers of approximately $400 million into the Fenero Funds as investments from “wealthy European families,” when in fact the money represented proceeds of the OneCoin fraud scheme. Scott layered the money through various Fenero Fund bank accounts in the Cayman Islands and the Republic of Ireland. Scott subsequently transferred the funds back to Ignatova and other OneCoin associated entities, this time disguising the transfers as outbound investments from the Fenero Funds. As part of the scheme, Scott and his co-conspirators lied to banks and other financial institutions all over the world, including to banks in the United States, to cause those institutions to make transfers of OneCoin proceeds and evade anti-money laundering procedures.
Scott faces a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison.
