Mark Scott, a lawyer, has been sentenced to ten years in prison for laundering $400 million from the OneCoin cryptocurrency fraud scheme. Scott, who was an equity partner at Locke Lord LLP, used his position to hide his involvement in the fraudulent scheme led by Ruja Ignatova, also known as the “Crypto Queen.” Ignatova orchestrated a massive cryptocurrency fraud between 2014 and 2016, defrauding over 3.5 million victims globally of more than $4 billion. Scott, convicted in 2019, set up fake private equity investment funds to launder the illegal proceeds before transferring them back to Ignatova and other OneCoin accomplices.
In 2016, Scott established the “Fenero Funds,” fake private equity investment funds in the British Virgin Islands, disguising OneCoin transfers as investments from “wealthy European families.” He employed a money laundering technique known as layering, funneling the money through accounts in the Cayman Islands and Ireland. Scott then lied to banks and financial institutions globally, manipulating them into making transfers of OneCoin proceeds and evading anti-money laundering procedures. OneCoin operated its fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme, based in Sofia, Bulgaria, and pushed its value artificially, defrauding victims based on US soil around 2015.
The sentencing highlights the deceptive practices employed by Scott, who used his law license to participate in a massive money laundering scheme for a cryptocurrency that had no actual value. The judge sentenced Scott to a decade in prison, emphasizing his accomplishment of fraud and deception, with an order to forfeit all illegal proceeds. The case underscores the ongoing efforts of authorities to combat criminal activities in the cryptocurrency space, particularly those involved in large-scale fraud schemes on the dark web.
Reference:
