David Edwards
Mark Scott, a lawyer with ties to the infamous Onecoin cryptocurrency, has received a ten-year prison sentence. He’s been charged with diverting $400 million from the Onecoin initiative to fund an extravagant lifestyle.
During his trial, the judge raised questions about Scott’s decision to sell his Porsche and move money to the Cayman Islands, arguing that this money should have been used to reimburse victims of Onecoin.
In a plea of innocence, Mark Scott’s attorneys have repeatedly stated that he was oblivious to Onecoin being a scam. They maintain that he did not know OneCoin was a fraudulent operation.
OneCoin, under the leadership of co-founder Ruta Ignatova, gathered more than $4 billion between 2014 and 2016. Ignatova, known as the “Cryptoqueen,” has been off the radar since vanishing six years ago. In June 2022, she earned a spot on the FBI’s top ten most wanted list. Karl Sebastian Greenwood, another co-founder, received a 20-year prison sentence in September 2023.
However, prosecutors argued that Scott earned $50 million by creating a sham investment fund to manage money for Ignatova.
Recent updates on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, showed Scott editing out the names of clients who supported him in court. According to allegations, he sold his sports car to afford living expenses, yet the judge insisted these proceeds should have gone to OneCoin victims instead.
“Scott offloaded his Porsche for $250,000 after receiving the forfeiture bill of particulars. He also transferred $300,000 to a bank account in the Cayman Islands, earmarked for Cape Cod properties.”
Scott is planning to challenge his conviction, claiming he only realized the fraudulent nature of the scheme through a blog post.
