OneCoin victims to be able to access info on DOJ proceedings
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has outlined its plans about providing information to victims of fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme OneCoin regarding the criminal proceedings against the company and the individuals associated with it. On April 15, 2022, the U.S. Government filed a motion in the New York Southern District Court describing the procedures to be followed in notifying potential victims of public proceedings to be held in this case.
This case involves charges arising from a scheme to defraud millions of investors throughout the world over multiple years. In or about 2014, OneCoin Ltd. was founded by two individuals, specifically, defendants Ruja Ignatova, a citizen of Germany, and Karl Sebastian Greenwood, a citizen of Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Although OneCoin Ltd. is based in Sofia, Bulgaria, the corporate entity was originally registered in Gibraltar on or about March 27, 2014, under the ownership of Ruja and a German attorney named Martin Breidenbach of the law firm Breidenbach Rechtsanwälte.
OneCoin Ltd. marketed a purported digital cryptocurrency called “OneCoin” through a global multi-level-marketing (MLM) network of OneCoin members. OneCoin members received commissions for recruiting others to purchase cryptocurrency packages. This multi-level marketing structure appears to have influenced the rapid growth of the OneCoin member network. OneCoin Ltd. has claimed to have over three million members worldwide.
The potential victims in this case include, among others, the individuals and entities who invested directly with OneCoin. The Government says it is aware of thousands such individuals and entities; however, the Government does not know whether its information is complete. Indeed, there are likely to be thousands of additional individuals and entities who invested with OneCoin, many of whom have not yet been identified by the Government. Moreover, because of the international nature of the scheme, many, if not the majority, of the potential victims reside outside the United States.
Given that there are thousands (if not millions) of potential victims in this case, and that as far as the Government is aware, there is no available compilation of all such individuals and entities, the Government respectfully submits that it is impracticable to give individualized notice to each potential victim. Therefore, the Government requests a finding that, under these circumstances, the number of victims makes it impracticable to accord all of the victims the rights described in Section 3771(a).
The Government will inform potential victims of all public court proceedings by posting notice of those proceedings on the Internet website of the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nys.
The Government’s Internet posting will specify that the Court, in order to conduct orderly proceedings and to maintain a reasonable schedule, requires notice from potential victims who wish to be heard at any public proceeding at which victims retain such a right under the Act (i.e., any “public proceeding . . . involving release, plea, sentencing or any parole proceeding,” see 18 U.S.C. 3771(a)(4)).
Moreover, the media coverage of this case suggests that potential victims can expect dissemination of publicly-available documents and information through a wide variety of media outlets, including, of course, FX News Group.