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Singapore Police Arrests Two Promoters of the OneCoin Cryptocurrency Scam
OneCoin has been labeled as a fraudulent cryptocurrency by a number of countries around the world. In fact, many people connected with the promotion of OneCoin have been arrested in the past four years; those include the ringleader Konstantin Ignatov who was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport on March 6, 2019.
Recently, Singapore has also came to the same conclusion about OneCoin as two men connected with the scheme were arrested for duping users. OneCoin was previously already regarded as a ‘pyramid scheme based on smoke and mirrors more than zeroes and ones,’ as dubbed by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
In one of its kind cases in Singapore, two men were arrested on April 10 for promoting the fraudulent cryptocurrency OneCoin, which was defined as a multi-level marketing scheme where people were paid incentives just for bringing new users. Further, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) has also revealed the two now-charged men and a fraudulent firm associated with them. According to the SPF, of the two men charged, one was charged with using, through the firm (named One Concept Pte Ltd), illicit multi-level marketing schemes in order promote the fraudulent cryptocurrency OneCoin.
SPF further explained that unsuspecting users were duped to take part in this pyramid scheme by purchasing the educational materials packed with promotional tokens. The SPF stated:
“The promotional tokens could be used to ‘mine’ for OneCoins. Participants who brought in new participants were also entitled to overriding commissions in contravention of the Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Selling (Prohibition) Act.”
Ruja Ignatova created OneCoin in Bulgaria in 2014 and ever since then the scam gained attention. In the United States, OneCoin is already marked as fraudulent crypto and all the peers associated with this multi-billion-dollar scam have been charged. New Zealand has also warned the public regarding the OneCoin scam. Now Singapore has also joined a growing list of countries slamming the promoters of the multi-billion-dollar OneCoin pyramid scheme and members of the public are also warned not to be involved in any multi-level marketing scheme associated with OneCoin or One Concept Pte Ltd.
As mentioned before, Konstantin Ignatov who is the brother of Ruja (the founder of OneCoin) was arrested and charged with wire fraud conspiracy. His wife, Ms. Ignatov, location unknown, has also been charged for wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering in absentia. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has already warned the investors regarding the OneCoin scam by setting OneCoin and the firm One Concept Pte Ltd. on high alert.
