Onecoin’s Lawyer Charged for Laundering $400m for the Shady Scheme 

Mark S. Scott, an attorney who formerly worked at legal firm Locke Lord, has been found guilty of laundering money on behalf of OneCoin founders by a Federal Court in Manhattan. 

OneCoin lawyer found guilty in 'crypto-scam' https://t.co/F5hyMZ3aQt

— BBC News Technology (@BBCTech) November 21, 2019

According to a November 21 report from Law360, the jury, which consisted of six men and six women, decided to give Scott the guilty verdict, after he was accused of being paid $50 million to launder $400 million on behalf of the scam founder and current fugitive. The discovery of the payout was also first reported by Law360, as the news medium revealed in a November 20 post that the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office and the New York County district attorney’s office had found evidence of a $50 million to the attorney. 

Funneling Dirty Money Around 

OneCoin is one of the most infamous exit scams to rock the cryptocurrency industry, as investigators have accused the company of having raised $4.4 billion in a Ponzi scheme. Per the Law360 report, testimonies from the staff at the Bank of Ireland revealed that Scott’s role was to use a wide network of bogus companies, scam investment schemes, and offshore bank accounts to conceal the ill-gotten funds. He reportedly tried to funnel money from the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands to the United Arab Emirates.

Upon the discovery of his payment, he was charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit bank fraud

Scott had argued that he had no knowledge of the Bulgarian firm’s fraudulent activities and was only performing his legal obligations to represent his client and her best interests to the best of his abilities. Sadly, the jury didn’t buy his plea, and they arrived at a guilty verdict in a matter of hours. Now, the attorney faces a possible sentence of 50 years in prison.

Neil Bush and the $300,000 Meeting

Scott is just the latest person to be linked with the Bulgarian scam network. Earlier this week, Scott stated in court that Neil Bush, an American investor and the younger brother of former United States President George W. Bush, was paid about $300,000 to meet with Ruja Ignatova.

https://twitter.com/CaliConserv1/status/1196269889276612610

Bush’s links to the scam seem to have been exaggerated, however, as he was no more than a board member of Hoifu Energy, an energy firm whose owner, Dr. Hui Chi Ming, purchased an African oil field that was significantly financed through OneCoin. While the deal eventually fell apart, Scott’s counsel did at that he was also led to believe that the Bulgarian company was legitimate.