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By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Thread, Plea
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SDNY COURTHOUSE, Nov 19 – After OneCoin's Konstantin Ignatov got a stay of the civil case against him, his criminal case was said to have been kicked down the road for at least another two months.

It was a productive two months, at least for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. They got Konstantin Ignatov to sign a plea agreement and become a cooperating witness.

  Now the trial is coming toward a close. At 3:55 am on November 19 Mark Scott's lawyer Arlo Devlin-Brown wrote to Judge Edgardo Ramos trying to get into evidence three exhibits about APEX, whose Mark Spendiff testified for the government about how APEX suspended Scott's (and it is alleged OneCoin's and Ruja Ignatova's) Fenero Funds as a customer of APEX's fund management services.

   The argument is that because APEX was charged by and settled with the SEC in an unrelated case, this motivated APEX to ditch Fenero, more than what Fenero Funds were doing with the money from OneCoin. Whther this one line of defense would make up in the jury's mind for the other seeming evidence of guilty knowledge by Scott is not known.

  But at the charging conference on November 18, with only four people in the gallery of cavernous Courtroom 318 of 40 Foley Square - once the main intake courtroom of the Mother Court - Arlo Devlin-Brown said that his defense summation will be much shorter if these exhibits are accepted in. Whether this logistical decision, directed at Judge Ramos' stated goal of getting a jury decision one way or the other by Friday so as not to take the jury into the Thanksgiving holiday week, is also not known, for now. Soon it will be known. Watch this site.

 Late on the afternoon of November 18 the charging conference was held, with Inner City Press the only media in the courtroom. The US opposed Mark Scott's lawyer's request for a "good faith" jury instruction, and at 10 pm followed it up with a letter: "Dear Judge Ramos: The Government submits this brief letter in opposition to the defendant’s proposed inclusion of a standalone good faith jury instruction. Such an instruction is unnecessary in light of the current jury instructions. The Second Circuit “has long adhered to the view held by a majority of the circuits that a district court is not required to give a separate ‘good faith defense’ instruction provided it properly instructs the jury on the government’s burden to prove the elements of knowledge and intent, because, in so doing, it necessarily captures the essence of a good faith defense.” United States v. Al Morshed, 69 F. App'x 13, 16 (2d Cir. 2003). As the Second Circuit has noted, standard instructions on knowledge and intent “capture the essence of the good faith defense, for someone cannot believe in good faith that he was acting properly and within the law if he knowingly” and intentionally committed the charged offense. Id. The current charge adequately charges the jury on the issues of knowledge and intent—including a reference in the conscious avoidance charge to the fact that if the jury “find[s] that [Scott] actually believed the fact was not so, then you may not find that he acted knowingly with respect to that fact.” The current jury charge is more than sufficient and nothing further is warranted in this case."

  Earlier on November 18 after Manhattan District Attorney's Office witness Rosalind October described OneCoin linked accounts at Commerzbank, Morgan Stanley and IBERIABANK, Scott's lawyers put on the stand their first witness, out of order: Florida lawyer Miguel Diaz de al Portilla as a character witness.

  After he testified about a real estate deal on which Mark Scott held with a refinance mortgage loan, Assistant US Attorney Christopher Dimase asked him about multiple campaign contributions from Scott when he unsuccessfully ran to re-election to the Florida state legislature.

  On Sunday November 17 the prosecutors had written to SDNY Judge Ramos to "request that the Court: (1) preclude the defendant from eliciting testimony from defense character witnesses regarding specific instances of the defendant’s conduct; and (2) instruct the jury that (a) the duty of client confidentiality cannot serve as a defense to criminal conduct; and (b) none of the email communications admitted by the Government at trial—including communications between the defendant and Ruja Ignatova—are privileged."

  At the tail end of the trial day on Friday, November 15, Scott's lawyers begrudgingly disclosed one such character witness, apparently Renier David de La Portilla. (Judge Ramos asked it was "del;" the answer was "de la.") 

 If it is, or even Miguel de La Portilla, both have been described for their roles in Cuban-American / Republican politics in Florida, casting addition light on the role in the case of George W. Bush's brother Neil Bush, first reported by Inner City Press, including at least $300,000 from Ruja Ignatova. We will have more on this during the November 18 trial day. Watch this site, this platform (Patreon) - and @InnerCityPress on Twitter.

 Inner City Press also first reported that Mark Scott associate David R. Pike was arrested on OneCoin charges and quietly presented in and bailed by the SDNY Magistrate Court on September 12, 2019 by Magistrate Judge James L. Cott, based on a complaint signed sealed back on August 29 by this week's Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker.

  Since then Special AUSA Julieta V. Lozano has asked for continuances, during the Scott trial, to figure out what to do with Pike afterward. Inner City Pres, cover this closely, will have more. More on Patreon here.

  On November 15, on which the government had said it might rest its case, AUSA Christopher Demase questioned  a witness from BNY Mellon about irregularities it found in Mark Scott's Fenero Funds' business with DMS Bank in Cayman Islands.

  The questioning established the FDIC insurance, an element in bank fraud charges, applies not only to BNY Mellon but also other involved banks including TD Bank, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC and Northern Trust. The implications of the evidence in the case for these banks is not yet clear. More on Patreon here.

 On November 13 the prosecution and the defense both questioned the deputy Chief Operating Officer of Locke Lord, the law firm Mark Scott worked at from June 2015 through September 2016. Thread here.

  E-mails were shown in which OneCoin's Ruja Ignatova told Scott, "I have some cash with me. About 220K GBP. Can you store it for me in London?" Other exhibits concerned a bank in Zimbabwe, a penthouse in London, and funds put into and quickly taken out of the law firm's escrow account.

  There is also in evidence an e-mail from the defendant Mark Scott to now-cooperating witness Konstantin Ignatov, as his sister Ruja's personal assistant, stating that "I would prefer not meeting in Sophia as I don't want too many travels there on my flight list." More on Patreon here.

On November 12 Inner City Press obtained and put online here, on Scribd, Konstantin Ignatov's plea agreement, including "On the understandings specified below, the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (“this Office”) will accept a guilty plea from Konstantin Ignatov (the “defendant”) to the above-referenced four-count Superseding Information (the “Information")...

If the defendant fully complies with the understandings specified in this Agreement, he will not be further prosecuted criminally by this Office for any crimes, except for criminal tax violations, related to his participation in: (1) an international cryptocurrency fraud scheme known as “OneCoin” (the “OneCoin Scheme"), from in or about 2016, up to and including in or about 2019, as charged in Counts One and Two of the Information; (2) a conspiracy to defraud banks and other financial institutions worldwide by causing them to transfer proceeds of the OneCoin Scheme by misrepresenting and omitting material facts to those banks and financial institutions, from in or about 2016, up to and including in or about 2019, as charged in Count Four of the Information; and (3) a conspiracy to launder criminal proceeds derived from the OneCoin Scheme, and to transfer funds internationally to promote the OneCoin Scheme, from in or about 2016, up to and including in or about 2019, as charged in Count Three of the Information; to the extent that he has disclosed such participation to this Office as of the date of this Agreement.

  It is understood that Ignatov's truthful cooperation with this Office is likely to reveal activities of individuals who might use violence, force, and intimidation against Ignatov, his family, and loved ones. Should Ignatov's cooperation present a significant risk of physical harm, this Office, upon the written request of Ignatov, will take steps that it determines to be reasonable and necessary to attempt to ensure his safety and that of his family and loved ones.

These steps may include application to the Witness Security Program of the United States Marshals Service, whereby Ignatov, his family, and loved ones, if approved, could be relocated under a new identity...

This Office will, however, bring the cooperation of the defendant to the attention of other prosecuting offices, if requested by him.  It is understood that the sentence to be imposed upon the defendant is within the sole discretion of the Court.

This Office cannot, and does not, make any promise or representation as to what sentence the defendant will receive, and will not recommend any specific sentence to the Court. However, this Office will inform the Probation Office and the Court of (a) this Agreement; (b) the nature and extent of the defendant's activities with respect to this case and all other activities of the defendant which this Office deems relevant to sentencing; and (c) the nature and extent of the defendant's cooperation with this Office. In so doing, this Office may use any information it deems relevant, including information provided by the defendant both prior to and subsequent to the signing of this Agreement.

In addition, if this Office determines that the defendant has provided substantial assistance in an investigation or prosecution, and if he has fully complied with the understandings specified in this Agreement, this Office will file a motion, pursuant to Section 5K1.1 of the Sentencing Guidelines, requesting the Court to sentence the defendant in light of the factors set forth in Section 5K1.1(a)(1)-(5).

It is understood that, even if such a motion is filed, the sentence to be imposed on the defendant remains within the sole discretion of the Court. Moreover, nothing in this Agreement limits this Office's right to present any facts and make any arguments relevant to sentencing to the Probation Office and the Court, or to take any position on post-sentencing motions. The defendant hereby consents to such adjournments of his sentence as may be requested by this Office.

 It is understood that, should this Office determine either that the defendant has not provided substantial assistance in an investigation or prosecution, or that the defendant has violated any provision of this Agreement, such a determination will release this Office from any obligation to file a motion pursuant to Section 5K1.1 of the Sentencing Guidelines, but will not entitle the defendant to withdraw his guilty plea once it has been entered.

 It is understood that, should this Office determine, subsequent to the filing of a motion pursuant to Section 5K1.1 of the Sentencing Guidelines and/or 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3553(e), that the defendant has violated any provision of this Agreement, this Office shall have the right to withdraw such motion."

 A sample TD Bank letter to Gilbert Armenta is here. We'll have more on this.

  On November 6 Konstantin Ignatov testified that the bodyguards to took Ruja on her final public trip told him she was met by "Russian guys," and that Ruja had told him that in Russia she knew a rich and powerful person. More on Patreon, here.

The case is US v. Scott / Ignatov, 17-cr-630 (Ramos).

 More on Patreon, here.

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