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US Court postpones sentencing of OneCoin crypto scam co-founder

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Mon, 13 Apr 2020, 03:25 am UTC

The New York Southern District Court decided to move the sentencing of OneCoin co-founder Konstantin Ignatov to three months from now.

Ignatov’s sentencing date was originally set for April 8. However, the court approved a motion to adjourn the sentencing control date for Ignatov, his brother and accomplice. The new sentencing date is set on July 8, 2020, Cointelegraph reported.

OneCoin is one of the industry’s most infamous scams. It was founded in 2014 by the Bulgaria-based firm and remained fully operational until November 2019 despite the allegations that it raised at least $4.4 billion in a Ponzi scheme.

Ignatov was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in March 2019. He pleaded guilty to participating in the multi-billion dollar scam and is facing up to 90 years of imprisonment.

OneCoin Ltd. claimed that OneCoin's cryptocurrency is mined using mining servers operated by the company and its value depends on market supply and demand. The company also claimed to have a private “blockchain” or digital ledger that records historical transactions, but the investigation proved otherwise, Finance Feeds reported.

Ignatov also repeatedly claimed that an “initial public offering” would occur. However, he only did it to generate excitement and solicit additional investment because the purported offering was always postponed and it never happened.

The U.S. government felt that Ignatov’s cooperation was “not yet fully complete.” He testified in the trial that Mark Scott is his co-conspirator.

Since Ignatov has testified publicly, the government requests to unseal a series of documents and the defense consented. The documents to be examined include the Government’s letter dated July 18, 2019; the October 4, 2019 change of plea transcript; the Sealed Superseding Information; the waiver of Indictment; and the October 8, 2019 sealing order.

Meanwhile, Q3 Investment Recovery Vehicle (Q3IRV), an entity representing the victims of the alleged $35 million Q3 Ponzi scheme is suing Wells Fargo Advisors for vicarious liability. The lawsuit accuses the company of failing to make appropriate inquiries to its financial advisor James Seijas when its policy mandates its employees to regularly report their activities relating to their interests outside their work.

Seijas touted himself as an investor representing Wells Fargo when he operated the scheme. So, the plaintiffs are suing the company's advisors for unjust enrichment, negligence, and fraud.

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