Three people are facing trial in Germany for their roles in one of the crypto world’s most infamous scams, Onecoin. The defendants are accused of fraud, among other crimes, allegedly committed as they assisted the pyramid scheme’s mastermind, ‘Cryptoqueen’ Ruja Ignatova, who is still on the run.
Lawyer and Couple Face Criminal Allegations in Germany Over Roles in Onecoin Scam
A husband and wife as well as an attorney from Munich are now among the first people in Europe to face criminal charges over their participation in the Onecoin crypto scam. On Tuesday, they appeared in a German court, Bloomberg reported.
The three have been accused of money laundering, fraud, and banking crimes linked to the multibillion-dollar fraud scheme. The pyramid was founded and managed by Bulgarian-born German national Ruja Ignatova, dubbed the ‘Cryptoqueen.’
The lawyer allegedly transferred €20 million ($19.7 million) to the Cayman Islands on behalf of Ignatova for the purchase of two London apartments for €75 million euros. The couple are charged with handling €320 million in payments from Onecoin customers within a year.
The German indictment points out that the pyramid defrauded people by falsely claiming that Onecoin was a cryptocurrency with market-determined value. Investors were also told that it could be mined at a rate of 50,000 coins per minute. In the court room, prosecutors explained:
In reality, the ever-growing value was a fake and the mining process…
