Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PYRAMID SCAM BOSS ARRESTED
Here’s an email that the boss of an alleged pyramid scam probably didn’t want the FBI to find.
“Take the money and run and blame someone else for this,” Ruja Ignatova wrote to an accomplice, according to court documents filed in the United States.
The 38-year-old from Bulgaria was the founder of Onecoin, a supposed virtual currency that would rival Bitcoin.
It roped in investors worldwide by paying commission to existing members who recruited newcomers.
I went to one of its mass recruitment sessions in London in 2016 where one speaker told the packed conference hall: “I am here to make you filthy rich.”
The opposite has happened and Onecoin is worthless.
Ruja has disappeared and the authorities in the USA have charged her with fraud and money laundering offences.
Her brother Konstantin, 33, was arrested last week at Los Angeles airport and has now been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud.
FBI assistant director-in-charge William Sweeney said Onecoin “had no real value”, adding: “The only ones who stood to benefit from its existence were its founders and co-conspirators.”
The court papers reveal that it raked in £2.8billion, partly thanks to invented figures purporting to show that its value has risen from €0.5 to nearly €30.
Cyrus Vance, New York County District Attorney, said: “As alleged in the indictment, these defendants executed an old-school pyramid scheme on a new-school platform.”