| As New OneCoin Lawsuit Cites
Greenwood and Madani, Now Allegations of
Ruja & Terrorism
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Patreon
BBC
- Decrypt
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Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
May 16 -- For money laundering
for scam crypto currency
OneCoin, lawyer Mark Scott was
convicted by a jury after
testimony by Konstantin
Ignatov and others but was
allowed to remain free on bail
pending sentencing.
Meanwhile
Crypto-Queen Ruja Ignatova's
marketing director Sebastian
Greenwood continues to have
his case postponed. A similar
back-up portends for Frank
Schneider, arrested on April
29 in Joudreville in the
Pays-Haut Meurthe-et-Mosellan
trying to get back into
Luxembourg and said to be
awaiting extradition.
Update: Inner City Press has
put questions to the US
Attorney's Office - a day
later, no response.
On May 13, at the
US Attorney's Office request,
more delay of sentencing:
"ENDORSED LETTER as to
Konstantin Ignatov addressed
to Judge Edgardo Ramos from
AUSAs Nicholas Folly / Michael
McGinnis, dated May 12, 2021
re: the Government
respectfully requests that the
sentencing control date be
adjourned for approximately
six months. ENDORSEMENT: The
application is granted. The
sentencing control date is
adjourned to November 12,
2021." Watch this site.
Inner City Press
previously exclusively reported:
Konstantin: I
tried to find where OneCoin
had money. I spoke with Frank
Schneider.
AUSA: Who was he?
Konstantin: Ruja got her
information about law
enforcement investigations
from him. He was a money
launderer. [We'll have more on
this]
On May 11, 2021,
Inner City Press received a
phone message and then an
email, about a law suit filed
about OneCoin and Ruja and
Bitcoin - and now this, "shows
that “Cryptoqueen” Ruja
Ignatova may be under the
protection of a powerful state
sponsor of terror in the
Middle
East.
The document authored by the
Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior
was delivered to the Dubai
Chief of Police by special
courier in 2015. The
document warned that Ruja
Ignatova’s OneCoin was a front
for terrorism financing.
The report authored by
Assistant Undersecretary for
Criminal Security Affairs
Major General Abdul Hamid
Abdul Rahim Al-Awadi
stated:
Ruja Ignatova entered the
United Arab Emirates using a
diplomatic passport through
Dubai International Airport by
a private plane and in
possession of a large sum of
money.
She purchased a license for a
bank license in the UAE for US
$16
million
Ignatova used accounts at
Mashreq Bank to launder money
for terrorist groups and made
several bank transfers to
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and
Yemen, which included
terrorist
organizations.
Kuwaiti Intelligence believed
Ignatova was working for an
unnamed state sponsor of
terrorism.
The lawsuit alleges that
Ignatova received diplomatic
credential from Sheikh Saoud
bin Faisal Al Qassimi and
purchased a bank license from
him. Other
document’s in plaintiff’s
possession indicate Sovereign
Group’s Nicholas Cully and
Ignatova’s German lawyer
helped Ignatova and sidekick
Sebastian Greenwood open bank
accounts in Dubai.
Mashreq Bank soon became
suspicious and reported the
matter to the Dubai Central
Bank which ordered a partial
banking freeze on the
individuals and accounts
involved.
Ignatova then sold or pledged
her Dubai holding worth about
$1 billion to the Sheikh Saoud
bin Faisal Al Qassimi
for 230,000 BTC worth $50
million then and now over $10
billion.
Despite issuing summonses for
Ignatova, Greenwood, and the
others, the Dubai police and
prosecutor made no arrests and
quietly closed the case in
June 2020 even though
Greenwood was in jail in New
York for money laundering" -
and he's still under murky
SDNY jurisdiction, watch this
site.
Greenwood had a
pre-trial conference on August
7, 2020. Inner City Press, as
it did the Scott trial, live
tweeted it here:
Judge Ramos:
Please call the case.
Deputy: US v.
Greenwood.
Bruce Barket for
Mr. Greenwood who is also on
the line.
Judge Ramos: Mr.
Greenwood, you have a right to
be present in court. Do you
waive it?
Greenwood: I do.
Judge
Ramos: Mr Folly, tell me where
we are?
AUSA Folly: There
has been some turn over, the
defendant has retained new
counsel several times. Mr.
Barket has only had a couple
of months of the case at this
point. We have produced a
sub-set of discovery to him.
AUSA Folly:
We have had some discussions
about a pre-trial disposition.
But given the difficulties of
prison visits, they have been
unable to fully discuss their
option. He is evaluating
whether to move to trial, or
move toward with pre-trial
resolution.
AUSA Folly:
At this stage it would make
sense to hold off on setting
any deadline and to come back
in a month or two and revisit
the status and proceed from
there.
Barket for
Greenwood: I agree. Our
communications with our client
has been woefully inadequate.
Barket:
This week we got 180 minutes
over two days. But usually
it's just an hour every ten
days. If we could visit, we
would spend hours every day, I
could get up to speed. A $15
billion alleged international
crypto-currency, with a lot of
information on the Internet
Barket: He
is one of the key participants
in the fraud, if it is a
fraud. We need to speak with
him. Video conferences take 10
days to set up. It's been this
way since May.
Judge Ramos:
Where is he being held?
Barket: In the
MCC in Manhattan.
Judge
Ramos: I appreciate the
obstacles. The Bureau of
Prisons efforts have
maintained a level of safety.
[Judge Ramos heard a case
about conditions in the MCC,
brought as it happened by Mark
Scott's lawyer Arlo Devlin
Brown]
Judge Ramos: Let's come back
in October.
Deputy:
October 5 at 11 am.
Judge Ramos: In
the meantime, have you
received all of the discovery,
Mr. Barket?
Barket: I got the
entire file from prior counsel
and some additional discovery
from the government. AUSA
Folly: We haven't given all of
it.
AUSA Folly: We
haven't given all of the
discovery due to discussions
of a pre-trial disposition.
We've shown him his own emails
to show him his knowledge and
involvement from the very
beginning of this fraud
scheme.
Barket: We've not
gotten very far...
Judge
Ramos: I would encourage the
parties discuss what has not
been turned over. Anything
else today?
AUSA Folly: Let's
exclude Speedy Trial Act time
until October 5 to allow
discussion of a pre-trial
disposition.
Ramos: Granted,
this outweighs the interest of
the public and of the
defendant in a Speedy Trial.
We are adjourned.
Inner City
Press aims to cover this
- and the long delayed
sentencing of Gilbert Armenta
on October 21. Watch this
site, and Twitter feed here.
In a
parallel world on March 12 the
US Attorney's Office belatedly
moved to revoke Scott's bail,
citing Scott's continue use of
OneCoin derived funds and,
explicitly, Inner City Press'
"blog
post" about Scott
dining out in Florida while on
home incarceration.
Assistant
US Attorney Chris Demase said
they have first read out it in
the blog post and couldn't
believe it - but that it was
proved by GPS information from
Scott's location monitoring
ankle bracelet.
Mark
Scott's Florida based lawyer
David M. Garvin sputtered over
the telephone from Florida,
with Scott next to him, that
the dinner had involved
lawyers. He tried to explain
Scott's use of OneCoin funds.
But Scott was ordered to turn
himself in to the US Bureau of
Prisons on March 13. And on
that day, Konstantin Ignatov
was released. Strange
symmetry.
Another of his
lawyers, when Inner City Press
left the courtroom, was
arranging to pay for a
transcript, perhaps to appeal.
Inner
City Press on
March 13 asked
the US
Attorney's
Office Press
Office for its
filings not
yet in the
public
docket.
Here
is Inner City Press' Periscope
video upon leaving the
courthouse. The case is US v.
Scott, 17-cr-630
(Ramos).
***
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