OneCoin investors arrested in Bangladesh
Following an investigation by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Counter Terrorism Unit, two OneCoin investors have been arrested in Bangladesh.
For those unfamiliar with the country, Bangladesh is a country of 171 million people in South Asia. It is bordered by India and Myanmar.
Officers of the DMP’s Counter Terrorism Unit, Cyber Security and Cyber Crime Intelligence agencies had been monitoring what they refer to as an “MLM fraud gang” for some time.
On Wednesday June 15th at approximately 10pm, DMP officers arrested Nazrul Islam Mamun and Zahirul Islam Zahir.
The suspects stand accused of promoting the OneCoin, Ilgamos and ImpaxGold Ponzi schemes.
DMP officers allege Mamun and Zahir, through promotion of OneCoin, Ilgamos and ImpaxGold, received “large sums of money” from the general public through deception.
Interrogation of the suspects revealed they accepted money from victims in exchange for IDs, which victims were told to “collect later”.
In schemes like OneCoin, Ilgamos and ImpaxGold,
some initial members benefit, but at the bottom (of the scheme there are) a huge amount of financial losses.
Mamun and Zahir purportedly recruited their victims through hotel presentations. DMP officers claim hotel presentations are ‘renowned for providing the general public with false information about businesses‘.
DMP officers are claiming that ‘necessary measures are being taken to stop these sites‘. A case has been filed with Ramna Police Station for further investigation.
In related news, remember that charity auction OneCoin held for top investors in London?
One of the auction items was a designer dress Ruja Ignatova wore in Dubai.
They flogged it off for 11,000 EUR. Buyer was some poor sap from Ukraine.
No mention of how much OneCoin investor money was spent on the event. Only OneCoin’s top brass were invited.
They enjoyed ‘fine dining and unforgettable hits of (the) world famous singer Haddaway‘.
for some more context, bangladesh was previously ‘east pakistan’.
when india won independence from colonial rule in 1947, the muslim population carved out pakistan and east pakistan from india, which has a predominantly hindu population.
bangladesh later freed itself from pakistan, and became an independent nation, but remains very underdeveloped.
but it is heartening to see that poorer or developing nations [eg china,india, thailand, bangladesh] take a more proactive role in protecting citizens from ponzi/pyramids.
IMO countries in europe etc have a more laidback approach and are not quick to take action.
one of the main promoters of onecoin in bangladesh appears to a ‘Sharif Ali’, who runs an FB page called ‘OneCoin Bangladesh’.
he has recorded special video bytes with ruja ignatova, sebastian greenwood and glenn smith to promote onecoin in bangladesh.
but he may be a non resident bangladeshi, and out of the grip of the bangladeshi regulators.
nevertheless, he wont be be hop, skip or jumping into bangladesh anytime soon.
suffice to say that bangladesh can now be considered ‘closed’ for any future onecoin ponzi business.
I shudder to think what he may do with/to/in it.
I had a chat with Glenn Smith in April. Nice fellow.
murobbs.muropaketti.com/posts/1717118889/
@tmfp
Should have mentioned it was a female buyer. Not that she couldn’t… ahem.
Maybe she will wear the dress and start her own scam and call it TwoCoins.
Excellent 🙂
I like to stay in good hotels when I travel, but I deliberately stay away from the type of places on his list simply because they are infested with his type of Global Trash.
so, rujamama is going to be in kuala lumpur, malaysia this weekend. she will throw a fairy princess gown over her head and plaster on some red lipstick and set out to woo malaysian wallets.
dato daniel tay of ufun/utoken with his blindingly bright shirts and overstated fashion sense is also very probably ‘hiding’ in malaysia.
come to think of it, besides their penchant for playing ‘dress up’, ruja and tay have much more in common, as the onecoin scam is quite similar to the ufun scam.
maybe rujamama and daniel tay will meet up to talk shop!
i mean, tomorrow we could hear that onecoin is buying out the downline of ufun!
Malaysia is where the PIPS owners were tried and jailed, if memory serves.
so, rujamama is on stage in malaysia and she’s Repeating Her Gown!!
that’s like blasphemy for a fashionista!
ruja cant buy new gowns anymore, so is onecoin crashing? [ 🙂 ]
there is some sarcasm from onecoin commentators too, on the official FB page of onecoin:
and this telling conversation:
and yet onecoin faithfuls like ken labine are all aflutter about the upcoming ‘split’ and how tokens/coins will get doubled.
ruja just does not have the money to allow onecoiners to encash their coins on her exchange. with the alexa graph of onecoin showing a flatlining, she may not even have the money to pay recruitment commissions.
poor poor ruja cant even buy new gowns anymore!
Lets not count the Dr out quite yet.
I am sure she has a few tricks left under that gown.
Doesn’t she have private talks with all the top leaders she has under her wing? Looking forward to October fest!!
Bitcoin.com and Jamie Redman, one of my favorite cryptocurrency journalists, just published an interview with me about Onecoin this morning, which already has over 6,000 views just since this morning!
Of course, the information shared therein would not be possible without the many scam-buster contributors here, and abroad, who have provided much ORIGINAL SOURCE DOCUMENTATION to support the evidence and proof of the scam.
For reasons which I believe you, Oz and others will completely understand, I did not “thank” anyone of the sources by name (although there are links to many of the sources, albeit whenever I could SOURCE the ORIGINAL SOURCES (with many of your help), I did so.
Please comment and share on the links (and Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, whatever) in order to bring it viral and help bring the scam to an end sooner, rather than later, so less people are financially devastated.
Again, I want to thank you ALL (albeit, informally), but I think that the “PPP/ PCP” false stigma that indoctrinated OC’ers have ingrained within their skulls in order to “dismiss” FACTS (due to cognitive dissonance) justified the importance of not spelling out all the contributors by name. But rest-assured, the article/ interview would not have been a fraction as impactful and exhaustive without you, and it is already gaining IMMENSE traction and traffic!
🙂
HERE is that article. news.bitcoin.com/beware-definitive-onecoin-ponzi/
great job tim tayshun! your interview has over 10,000 views already.
and ken labine has not missed the opportunity to make a complete ass of himself in the comments section ! 🙂
LMAO… Does Labine ever miss an opportunity to make a complete ass of himself?? he is just so damn predictable isnt he though?
meanwhile there are some complaints from onecoin affiliates about not being able to log into their accounts and their account being ‘frozen’.
onecoin official FB page:
not sure if this onecoin coverage on chinese TV has been posted on onecoin threads here already, but here it is:
youtube.com/watch?v=X7FgOBnVJCM&feature=share
it was uploaded on youtube by ben zmith on may 28, 2016.
paging chang!! please translate!!
Lovely Ruja interview on (….dating site??) circa Nov. 1st. 2011 – blitz.bg/article/27717
EPIC photo! She must have had some SERIOUS work done! Oh, and she talks about how her man must be good in bed. (thanks for the link: MuROBBS)
uh, so rujamama the cryptocurrency ‘expert’ who’s going to kill bitcoin, was in the hairdressing and fashion business in bulgaria in 2011?
hahaha, that explains why she is clueless about cryptocurrency, but glued to fashion and hairstyling even in 2016!
from IceQueen to CryptoQueen!!
great find tim tayshun courtesy MuROBBS !!
Blitz is some kind of gossip/women’s magazine in Bulgaria.
Murobbs had a post informing that someone had maybe found an old dating site profile of Ruja (but couldn’t find it anymore).
The “Ice Queen” refers to Asdis Ran who apparently has been some kind of celebrity in Bulgaria despite her Icelandic origins.
Murobbs had also this link to interview with Minchev: prnew.info/tag/svetski-pr/
So Ruja has been working with some important stuff before. Being in jury of Miss Summer contest!
That must have been somewhere between her busy schedule of taking part in Bitcoin seminars and consulting Bitcoin experts.
Congrats Tim. Really great article by Jamie. Kudos.
in dec, 2015, a leading crypto magazine called ‘the coin telegraph’ had reported on alleged links between onecoin and the bulgarian underground:
cointelegraph.com/news/onecoin-a-voice-from-inside-is-there-underground-circles-in-bulgaria
a pdf document uploaded by onecointrust.com, documents that ruja ignatova served as CEO of Clever Synergies Investment Fund (CSIF), circa 2010:
onecointrust.com/guidebooks/RujaIgnatovaResearch.pdf
so, who is this powerful bulgarian woman founder of CISF? it is one Tsvetelina Borislavova, said to be one of the richest people in bulgaria :
and why is Tsvetelina Borislavova so rich’n famous? because she was the common law wife of bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borissov.
Boyko Borissov is currently serving his second term as prime minister of bulgaria, and according to wiki:
wiki further alleges money laundering activities by borissov and borislavova:
though borissov and borislavova are no longer a couple;
also, recently some guy [i forget his username!] had appeared in the comments section of behindmlm, and had claimed to have been a programmer for onecoin, and had alleged that ruja ignatova and her onecoin were backed by criminal organizations in bulgaria.
putting together all the above information : the cointelegraph article along with ruja ignatova’s direct working relationship with Tsvetelina Borislavova, who was the common law wife of the current prime minister Boyko Borisov, who in turn are alleged to have underground and money laundering connections and a whole lot of power, is it surprising that ruja ignatova is so cosy and comfortable in bulgaria?
it is quite possible that ruja ignatova has connections to the bulgarian underground, and help in money laundering, and political protection.
^^ this is not conclusive but hey, where there’s Smoke there’s Fire.
@ Tim
edit to add:
Great article but what’s going on there in the comments bro?
Every time you START POSTING IN ALL CAPS you start looking like Lazar. Every time you use a derogative like ‘OneCon’ or ‘Rujamama’ you cheapen your stance and weaken the very firm ground you’ve established in the article, IMHO.
Stop letting Ken Labine troll you. Write your comment then wait 15 minutes before posting it, go have a coffee, come back and read it three times as if you’re the judge in a OneCoin trial.
The guy is either psychologically imbalanced or he’s a more cunning troll than you give him credit for.
Sure, he looks like an idiot in those comments, but he’s managed to downgrade your personal authority and make you look petty by hooking you into playing his game, so he’s a useful idiot for Onecoin.
Enjoy your debate tomorrow, just check your emotions in at the door before you enter the debating room 😉
Yeah Tim, the point above is correct, but more imho: dont go debate with this man, because is crook/fool/maniac (i can’t make a diagnosis for now).
He is impervious to any resonable argumentation. So debate with him give him a little bit credit that he dont deserve.
I have the same problem, here in belgium with this man: nolink://facebook.com/laurentlouisdlb/?fref=ts
He even say to a mate, without money, to make a loan to go into this shit.
I try to expose him the true, but now my mate don’t want to speak to me anymore. Make me sick, what to do. So sad.
Oh great. Imi Shah is posting the article on his Facebook page where he recruits for a crypto ponzi called CoinSpace.
facebook.com/imran.h.shah.5?ref=ts&fref=ts
All this work only to have recruitment pimps use the information to lure folks into another fake crypto opportunity. No doubt they are saying CoinSpace is different than OneCoin. I suspect they’ve learned from the mistakes OC made and will better conceal the new fraud with all this crypto info.
The common denominator is endless chain recruitment. We must drill this into peoples’s heads and tie it all together, or it will all be for naught.
@anjali – “Tribis Altair”
@RT – point taken. Thank you
Great stuff Tim, but listen to RT and Jean above; remember the saying about wrestling with pigs.
Re: anjali’s
+1000 on that.
It is completely absurd to think that Ignatova is operating in a vacuum here. She is very much the lipstick on a Mafia pig, of that there is not a shadow of doubt in my mind.
I read the article, and it comes across as a personal vendetta against the people of OneCoin. It would have been better if no names were named in the article as it was supposed to be an article about OneCoin and not the people who run it.
I was expecting to read that Ruja is a Tranny and that Ken uses her old ding-a-ling on a nightly basis while wearing Ruja’s dress that he bought dreaming about all the presents he could buy Ruja with all his OneCoins. It was just too personal for me.
Whether Ken debates Tim or not doesn’t change the fact that OneCoin is a scheme that makes a few rich and most people poor.
It also doesn’t matter what Ruja, Sebastian, Juha, or Kari did in their past. What they did in their past has little to do with how to judge OneCoin.
I agree that they are thieves, but that can be proven by talking about how OneCoin steals money.
Danny Sessoms of The Crypto Show (on LOGOS Radio Network and LTB Network) has agreed to moderate the debate tomorrow at noon, Pacific Standard Time.
Whether Le’Beans will show is yet to be determined.
@Mr. Ponzi Scheme – I “get” your point, but the MLM ponzi side of things is not where I’m fluent. Cryptocurrency is.
The founders and co-conspirators history IS pertinent though, because that article, in retrospect, is coming from a war-like position following Ruja’s new “THE BITCOIN KILLER” declaration.
So, the premise attacks 1.) The fact that it is NOT a cryptocurrency at all, 2.) Onecoin dies not follow any laws of economics, and 3.) That it is a hybrid ponzi/ pyramid scam.
Obviously, if I were fluent or coming soley from the MLM standpoint it would have read entirely differently.
The 120 BILLION coins, “new blockchain,” and claim, “Onecoin: The Bitcoin Killer” is what will strike anger and activism within the entire cryptocurrency community, which is why, since yesterday, it has been read over 22,000 times, with over 1,000 share on Facebook alone.
It is also bring widely distributed in the Onecoin community, and while 2 out of 3 Onecoiners will dismiss it, it seems 1/3 are trying to digest such a massive wall of information backed by TONS of sourcing (which without the leaders, investigators, consumer rights advocates and journalists on this site, as well on other blogs and scam buster organizations would not be possible).
So, thank you Oz and your readers, as well as anyone else who has been contributing to this lengthy process.
That’s putting it lightly.
It’s not about getting rich or poor like bad timing in a business or the stock market. It’s about stealing.
People that steal and lie for a living certainly deserve to have their pasts exposed. This is especially true to support facts surrounding their most current scam.
Plus, getting the names out there is important to warn others in the future for the next Ponzi/MLM, or any real business for that matter, they partake in.
CSIF, as explained in post#23 is owned by Tsvetelina Borislavova, the common law wife of current bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borissov.
bloomerg.com shows ruja ignatova as a member of the board of directors of CSIF:
further proof that ruja ignatova is still with CSIF and Tsvetelina Borislavova is found in this article dated 07-11-2015 on Klassa.bg, which quotes ruja:
onecointrust.com/docs/klassa.pdf
the pamporova ski resort is owned by Tsvetelina Borislavova.
so, ruja ignatova is helping the bulgarian PM’s wife run her CSIF investment group, while publicly running the ponzi/pyramid scam of onecoin which is sucking up money from across the world?
bulgaria is the poorest and most corrupt country in the EU, and is being nudged by the EU to clean up its act.
wikileaks documents have already exposed PM Boyko Borissov and Tsvetelina Borislavova as being involved with the mafia and money laundering.
with onecoin becoming infamous as one of the largest ponzi pyramid schemes in recent history, how good is this going to look for the bulgarian PM?
[anyone notice the parallels between onecoin and ufun/utoken? danial tay of ufun was exposed by behindmlm as having links with the son of the prime minister of malaysia ]
To expose OneCoin you must explain it in a way that makes sense to OneCoiners and that means you must speak only of money.
People joint OneCoin do not care about what crypto currency is. All they care about is money. So from a money/wealth perspective, what is OneCoin doing?
One thing that no one can intelligently argue against is that because OneCoin is a closed system the total wealth within OneCoin is equal to the summation of the individual wealth of its members (i.e- wealth is fixed within the system).
If you like physics, energy is neither created nor destroyed. Same applies to OneCoin. Wealth within OneCoin is neither created nor destroyed. It only changes forms.
People transfer money from one to another when joining. People transfer money from one to another when buying/selling OneCoins. Total wealth stays the same, but it’s redistributed within the system.
It’s a closed system and the system as setup cannot grow wealth and the wealth within the system is fixed.
So what this means is that for every person increasing their cash, there is someone losing cash. For everyone who is obtaining property, there is someone losing property. As a whole, there are more people losing wealth than obtaining wealth.
That is all because it’s a closed system and OneCoins only have value to people within the system and a value of 0 to people outside the system.
Only when/if OneCoin becomes an open system will OneCoins have true value. Only when/if that happens will OneCoin be able to grow its own wealth. Only when/if OneCoin becomes an open system will it be able to be used within a marketplace that’s not within the OneCoin system.
The OneCoin marketplace will continue to be small as a closed system because businesses will not accept a restricted currency that costs them money to exchange into a currency that allows them to pay bills.
The threshold that OneCoin is setting to go open will never be met. Businesses will not join the marketplace as there is no benefit to them as they will either have to charge more to people using OneCoins or they will take a loss when exchanging OneCoins to fiat currency so they can pay bills.
If a drink costs $1 with USD and $1.50 equivalent with OneCoins, why would someone buy with OneCoins? The only reason would be because of convenience. I do not see the convenience of paying with OneCoins over any other currency.
I don’t agree with you. To know the actors in the game helps to know the game being played. It has a lot to do with things that have happened and is happening with people in OneCoin.
It also helps to show the legitimacy in the background running of things. Being the other actual facts of what they have done makes a full picture.
@ Mr P
OK, understood that it’s a zero sum game, but what you’re describing and the way you’re doing that is more confusing that explaining crypto currency.
Onecoiners will be told that your argument is moot or ‘foolish’ because you just don’t understand their new fangled crypto-wypto super charged way of creating wealth from inside their closed system, which they will describe as only a closed system in so far as that ‘benefits’ them, and it’s open and transparent in every other respect, and one million merchants are on the way, coming soon, so it must be reeeally open!
If you want to affect people who are on the edge of investing, you simply need to create doubt, to counter the cult like certainty they are faced with from their friends and associates, and their own greed that ‘wants to believe’.
Showing people the head office is populated by convicted felons and known frauds creates a doubt. Showing provable lies creates doubt. Undermining the techno babble of OneCoin fake crypto speak with articles on BitCoin News creates doubt.
Tim’s doing a good job, but undermining his own efforts when allowing his emotions (ego) to pull him down into the manners of the gutter he’s trying to expose.
The other obvious misunderstanding, to me, is thinking that severely deluded people are open to listening. You can tell someone to listen as much as you like, but they can’t hear you because they’re NOT LISTENING 😉
“Were you listening to me Neo, or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?”
Good luck Tim 🙂
Guys, I am LOL! Just had a conversation with Ken on the another site. Asked him few questions. The answers of him relly indicate his mental illness, or he simply pretend, I dont know.
Cannot not to post it as a masterpiece of stupidity. Especially I love his following passage:
(Ozedit: Anything Ken Labine is a waste of time…)
My point is is that OneCoin is a scam because it’s a scam. There’s a lot of evidence that it’s a scam. It’s not a scam because of the top leaders’ past.
When you start talking about the leaders’ past, you take away from the real evidence that it’s a scam. Judge the OneCoin scam based on the scam of OneCoin. You can draw similarities to other scams the leaders have been involved with.
The correlation between what they did in the past and what they are doing today needs to shown. The similarities/correlation is what needs to be discussed, not just that they were involved with scams and are jerks.
It’s a nuance that makes a difference of appearing like a personal vendetta vs appearing like facts.
This is a short passage from my yesterdays conversation with Kenny. Have fun guys!
OMG! Really? He is either mentally sick or he is a sneaky coward!
OZ, please, don’t remove that, let people have some fun
Oz and the BehindMLM blog has been covering the OneCoin Ponzi Scheme for the past year or so. If any reasonably intelligent person took the time to read them all, they would (or at least “should”) know to stay away from this fraud.
However, since fraud is not limited to just OneCoin and their promoters, as Oz posts information about other Ponzi Schemes, the information about OneCoin gets pushed down the Main Page.
I ran a search on the BehindMLM site and was amazed at the number of posts about this fraud of a company. Here are JUST A FEW of the headlines about one of our favorite Ponzi Schemes – OneCoin:
* Chinese authorities investigating OneCoin, investors arrested
* OneCoin abandon US operations
* OneCoin an “illegal MLM” in Colombia
* OneCoin a pyramid scheme in Sweden, reported to police
* OneCoin investors arrested in Bangladesh
* OneCoin warning issued by Austrian Consumer Protection
* Swedish police launch preliminary OneCoin investigation
* Norwegian DSA warn against OneCoin pyramid scheme
* OneCoin under regulatory investigation in Germany
* OneCoin Mastercard merchant part of a drug gang
* Ignatova laundering OneCoin funds through mother
* Sisel Co-Founder: OneCoin is an “illegal scam”
* $45.7 million recovered from Chinese OneCoin scammers
* Seva Canada returns OneCoin donations, severs ties
* OneCoin under police investigation in Finland
* Latvian regulator: OneCoin modeled on a pyramid scheme
* OneCoin investment warning issued by Bank of Hungary
* Finland’s NBI to continue monitoring OneCoin
* Bulgarian FSC regulator issues Onecoin warning
* OneCoin change banks amid German regulatory investigation
* OneCoin acquires collapsed BNG International pyramid scheme
Legitimate companies try and distance themselves from known Ponzi schemes. OneCoin merges with them or buys their database!
* OneCoin confirm UniverTeam buyout, victims lament losses
* OneCoin gobbling up failed Euro scams
* UniverTeam OneCoin’s latest acquisition?
* OneCoin acquires Bonofa pyramid scheme
Does it make you angry that OneCoin is still doing business in Canada and the USA even though they are not registered to do so?
Does it make you sick to your stomach that these Con Artists are stealing the hard earned money of the very people who can least afford to lose it?
We can all do our part by alerting the regulators.
Note: Don’t be surprised to learn that most of them are already aware of what’s going on. You will not be the first to alert them. 🙂
It’s time to take action and alert the authorities about this disqusting blight on society and the people profiting from it.
Here’s how:
Living in DC, I’ve already gone to the SEC and talked to them in person about OneCoin.
I named names and provided Facebook links to those people. They are aware of who is doing what and when they are doing it.
The only question is is will they wait to nail the top, or will they go after the mid-levels?
They were saying the same with bitcoin. This is the story of criptocurrencys …
You must give further investigation. here’s just stupid nonsense. please give more convincing information.
Nobody ever said bitcoin was using newly invested funds to pay off existing investors. They can’t, bitcoin isn’t a company let alone an MLM opportunity.
Nobody’s here to convince you of anything. There are facts, which dumbasses such as yourself choose to ignore.
Best of luck with that.
Who is the “THEY” of whom you speak ???
The gang down the pub?? Cryptocurrency experts???
If I buy a penny stock with a ten dollar investment, and my neighbor buys &10,000 of the same, and the stock splits 10 times we each receive the split 10 times.
In one coin if you put in $150.00 you receive one split, if you put in $20,000 you get more splits than the small investor.
This makes no sense and is probably illegal, this will never be approved by a stock exchange or commodity exchange, one coin baits the investor by selling the split to get more money from the investor.
BTW you can not get your money out anyway, you are allowed to sell 12 euros woth of coins per day.
@ makesnocents
As you surely have discovered, OneCoin (OneLife) doesn’t operate under the same rules as other financial instruments.
It’s now clear, to anyone with basic comprehension skills, that what we have here is nothing more than a common garden variety Ponzi Scheme, albeit one of the biggest frauds in recent history.
What I’ve found interesting (and bewildering) is how many of the OneCoin Reps live here in the USA. OneCoin (OneLife) never bothered to register here in the USA. It’s clearly illegal to sell OneCoin (OneLife) here in the USA but that doesn’t stop many from doing so.
These PPP’s (Ponzi Pumping Pimps) are selling unregistered securities to unsuspecting investors who believe the story: Wire your money to this new company, with a new currency that’s domiciled in Bulgaria and you can get rich – just like we did!
Their methods of luring their friends, family and social media contacts into their net are easy to read unless you’re uninformed, too trusting or just plain naive.
NOTE: These con artists fail to tell their marks about:
* lack of liquidity
* no merchants accepting OneCoin as payment (OneCoin doesn’t even accept it)
* bad press, blogs like BehindMLM that tells the truth about the company
* ongoing investigations in many countries
* questionable background of the owners and top leaders.
One of their favorite methods is to post articles about the popularity and rise in price of Bitcoin.
They convince their marks that OneCoin is the next Bitcoin (or even better) and they can get rich by wiring their money to this lady in Bulgaria!
Another method used by these scoundrels is to post articles like this one, “All paper currencies are doomed, Marc Faber says”
This may or may not be accurate but one this is 100% certain. Common sense tells us that sending your money to Bulgaria is not going to help.
OneCoin pays a 10% commission on every new dollar they can bring to the company. Is this the main motivation of our favorite coin artists?
The Securities and Exchange Commission posted this information in an attempt to warn investors about ponzi schemes:
“What are some Ponzi scheme “red flags”?
Many Ponzi schemes share common characteristics. Look for these warning signs:
* High investment returns with little or no risk. Every investment carries some degree of risk, and investments yielding higher returns typically involve more risk. Be highly suspicious of any “guaranteed” investment opportunity.
*Overly consistent returns. Investment values tend to go up and down over time, especially those offering potentially high returns. Be suspect of an investment that continues to generate regular, positive returns regardless of overall market conditions.
* Unregistered investments. Ponzi schemes typically involve investments that have not been registered with the SEC or with state regulators. Registration is important because it provides investors with access to key information about the company’s management, products, services, and finances.
* Unlicensed sellers. Federal and state securities laws require investment professionals and their firms to be licensed or registered. Most Ponzi schemes involve unlicensed individuals or unregistered firms.
* Secretive and/or complex strategies. Avoiding investments you do not understand, or for which you cannot get complete information, is a good rule of thumb.
* Issues with paperwork. Do not accept excuses regarding why you cannot review information about an investment in writing. Also, account statement errors and inconsistencies may be signs that funds are not being invested as promised.
* Difficulty receiving payments. Be suspicious if you do not receive a payment or have difficulty cashing out your investment. Keep in mind that Ponzi scheme promoters routinely encourage participants to “roll over” investments and sometimes promise returns offering even higher returns on the amount rolled over.”
For those keeping score, all 7 of the warnings listed above apply to OneCoin (OneLife).
It’s time to take action and alert the authorities about this disqusting blight on society and the people profiting from it.
Here’s how:
@ERRORHACK – RE: please give more convincing information.
Please read: news.bitcoin.com/beware-definitive-onecoin-ponzi/
Much of this is compiled from reports both here, as well as around the world, but whenever possible the original SOURCE documentation/ evidence is directly linked to support any assertions or accusations.
Since this article came out less than a week ago it has over 42,000 views and nearly 4,000 shares on Facebook alone. As you might imagine, this article has made it in front of ALL the top Onecoin Leaders and co-conspirators, and has been blasted around the internet by Onercoiners, themselves, seeking answers from their upline.
Despite having agreed to a “debate” (as documented from screen captures from recorded conversation two weeks ago), Ken Labine (Onecoin Team Leader, CANADA), had previously refused to the debate post-facto, unless it was “one-on-one,” and that he controlled it and that there would be no moderator.
My simple challenge to him was if I were to turn into a masochist and allow him to control any such debate (which has already proved ridiculous for both others and myself in the past, due to his yelling us out, or in fact never even plugging us into the conversation in the first place), that he would simply need to find PROOF which refutes ANY of the several dozen claims in the article.
Essentially, I said, “disprove a single claim in the article” and you can control the entire debate. After almost a week of typical meandering, Labine was unable to prove even one single point or assertion as false (except for minutia about how Onecoin’s “mandatory account” works and that upgrade packages CANNOT be purchased from there – only from the “Cash Account”).
After flailing hard for several days, Labine finally conceeded to allow an Attorney in the space, Addela Toulon-Foerester, to moderate a debate tentatively scheduled for 10:00AM PST on July 12th (this date and time is presently “tentative” due to confirmation between all parties).
@MLM Broken Model – RE: “OneCoin pays a 10% commission on every new dollar they can bring to the company.”
Even this isn’t exactly true, if you think about it, due to the fact that of the “10% commission” only 6% goes to your “Cash Account,” while 4% is in the worthless “mandatory account,” which you’ll never see any benefit from.
If anyone has time to capture some comments on Onecon FB pages, it’s pretty comedy and popcorn worthy. For every 20 comments, it appears that 14 are being deleted (about 70%)!!!
Awareness of the impossibility to defy basic and long-standing principles of supply & demand in economics by increasing “money-supply” by 57x without negatively affecting value is seeming to slowly become more realized.
@ TimTayshun
Even this isn’t exactly true, if you think about it, due to the fact that of the “10% commission” only 6% goes to your “Cash Account,” while 4% is in the worthless “mandatory account,” which you’ll never see any benefit from.”
OneCoin does pay a 10% commission on every dollar these scoundrels bring to the company. I didn’t see the need to break HOW that “10%” was paid out.
When these ponzi promoters start with OneCoin/OneLife, they actually believe that 4% is real. And, once Ruja starts magically increasing the value and doubling (splits) the number of coins in their account, they’re motivated to bring in even more New Money (investors).
What neither of us talked about are the overrides paid when their teams bring in new investors.
Just ask Tom McMurrain, Carl Wilt or Kevin Foster why they fly across the USA doing meetings for their fellow ponzi pedlars.
Plus, they are blatantly promoting a company that isn’t even allowed in the USA. Although I haven’t confirmed the reports, it appears they are convincing their investors to wire money “off shore” in order to circumvent the banking (and other) laws in place here in the USA.
That should be a clue to most but apparently their greed gets in the way of their common sense reasoning and judgement.
Our favorite ponzi pumpers are leaving evidence of their sleazy sales techniques all over the web. I doubt they will be using social media to sell this investment in the near future.
But who knows. I haven’t seen anyone accusing them as being particularly intelligent. It really doesn’t matter as all of their sales tactics have been archived for the “main event” down the road.
Will the investors here in the USA sue the Top Ponzi Promoting Pros when they wake up one morning and read the headlines that are sure to come, “OneCoin investors arrested in the USA” like we have seen in other countries?
Stay tuned!
ONECOIN: BREACH OF CONTRACT?
Has anyone else investigated this as qualifying for Breach of Contract?
As Oz has already covered and has been mentioned in numerous comments herein, Ruja and THE COMPANY are, in fact, “on-the-record” as publishing a now totally false claim:
SOURCE: image.slidesharecdn.com/onecoinofficialen2014-150104051958-conversion-gate02/95/one-coin-business-presentation-4-638.jpg?cb=1420364329
Since this was OBVIOUSLY unauthorized by *share-holders(?) or voted upon by investors, and since it was done unilaterally, what are the chances that investors could sue, make a claim, or be granted reimbursement against such “dilution?”
(note: of course the “chances” of actually recovering a dime are probably nil being that we know who they’re dealing with. But my question is more to the point of whether or not the basis of such a claim might have legal standing?)
Yo, easy on the regulator contact spam.
Another fun FYI: It appears that Chris Principe, Publisher of Financial IT, was sooo impressed by Onecoin’s business model and revolutionary blockchain technology (despite the recent 5,700% dilution), that he has packed up his bags and become a bonified Onecoin “groupie” and “joined the Tour!”
onecoinpartners.com/onecoin-news/onelife-newsletter-june-27-2016/
Wasn’t it obvious Principe was on the take after that “interview” a while back?
@Oz – would the 5,700% dilution be a legitimate and legal claim for investors to demand reimbursement (or a class action lawsuit)? The “investment” was advertised as “scarce” once it published RULES that out claimed could not be changed (ie., “finite and fixed supply”).
Can a company publish a claim this definitive and then re-neg on what they have described as a very principal of its business model?
A legitimate company might have problems, a Ponzi scheme however operates outside of the law.
They aren’t fussed about committing financial fraud, what’s a breach of contract going to mean to them? And most investors won’t initiate any action for fear of losing their investment anyway.
@Tim T —
Seems they do it all the time. That’s what liars and cheats do.
I’ve been around this industry for a long time and there’s always wolves in sheeps clothing lying in wait for the unexpecting, the desperate, the trusting and the greedy.
It’s getting easier to spot these wicked people especially if you you’re smart enough to utilize this information hiway that’s now at our fingertips. Seems where there is greed there is every evil work.
Simple: blame the minions for misunderstanding.
@K.Chang – I appreciate your dialogue. I have learned a lot from you and others here.
This is my first MLM related rodeo, as I’ve started before. I am befuddled by the foolishness of people involved in these things.
When I first read Oz initial exposé on Onecoin, I thought, “wow! That was great! Now all these sheep will understand what this really is!” Lol.
That was like 55(?) Damning reports so! Hahaha!! I’m like, “REALLY!?!? THIS IS STILL GOING?!?!?”
I mean, a Bennie Madoff scam or Triple A Rated Lehman Brothers fail, I can understand how the wool was pulled over investors eyes, but this crap is straight out of L. Ron Hubbard indoctrination!!!
The ponzi world is a parallel universe to me which I have trouble understanding the like of Ken Labine and John Reilly. Others, like convicted fraud felon Tom McMurrain, I am finally able to see right through.
Tom is particularly dangerous because not only does he understand the scam, but he has intermediate knowledge in blockchain technology, and I would assume simple principles of economics, but he still pushes the scam heavily!!
I think that since this will be his second fraud conviction when this unfolds, if he doesn’t nail (like he did last time) he will be looking at AT LEAST 5 years (correct me if I’m wrong).
..if he didn’t +bail (town).
PS. I know this video has been referenced previously, but is this actually just Took McMurrain’s pre-prepared statement to a deposition?
m.youtube.com/watch?v=qxlFei3oN2A
Does it sound to you like he is already making a feeble attempt at justifying his excuse for selling unlicensed securities, which based on the messages of To Leaders In the same game are documented as testifying to the alleged reality of being rewarded progressively multiplying investment positions based on the sizes of “education packages” one purchases??
I haven’t personally taken an “in-depth” dive into the quality or quantity of information differentiating any “education packages” which can range in prove from between 130€ and up to 37,300€ (“Infinity Package “) and the massive ” ELITE ” Package, which costs 100,000€ and comes with a certain volume of ponzi tokens.
Has anyone compared the actual “education materials” which differentiate the investment (outside of sheer mining tokens)?
Are the often copyright infringed larger packages more voluminous? Are the alleged authors more “credentialed?”
What is the difference and in-betweens separating a 5,000€ “Tycoon” from a 27,300€ “infinity” or 100,000€ “ELITE?”
are .Pdf’s 3x more voluminous in length? In credentialed authoritative sources?
Is there any difference at all? How can it be measured? DO NEW “EDUCATION PACKAGES” EVEN EXIST AT ALL LEVELS OF WHICH THEY ARE SELLING!?!?
(or is it simply, ” bigger packages receive more splits and more ponzi tokens for mining?”)
In other words, what “new” information would a $5,000 tycoon have to incentivise spending an additional 95,000€ to say, “F’-it! I’m rolling EVERYTHING into getting my ” ELITE ” education!!!
Do you receive some sort of “Encyclopedia of Cryptocurrency Investment” for that elusive “ELITE” Package or something!?!?!?
@TimTayshun about the legal question of breaching contract
I am here talking solely about Finnish law now, and I am not an expert of it, but this is about how i would imagine situation to be in here.
First, lets assume OneCoin is real in every way, and only possible breach of contract they now did, was to change their amount of coins into 120 billion coins.
First of all comes the question of what did read in the contract you joined with. I am not sure if different kind of talk in public is necessarily problem if contract says otherwise.
However, it could go in to false marketing instead of breach of contract.
Another question is also, even if that speech is valid, is it then really a breach of contract yet. At least two possiblities come to my mind.
1. It was explanation of technical detail (how do you know legit cryptocoin), it didnt exactly talk of the product in sense of promising exact content being 2.1 billion, but used it as theoretical, familiar to audience example, in sense of “Like our current cryptocointechnology has fixed 2.1 billion coins”.
2. Especially when taken into consideration option 1, you could argue that they didnt exactly increase the amount of coins (although in practice they did), but instead they replaced the old technology with a new one.
Hence breach of contract questions would boil down to basically two questions.
1. Did they ever bindingly promise there would only be 2.1 billion onecoins ever? Especially in contract (remember, affiliate promosing this is not the same as companys promise).
2. Did they ever bindingly promise not to change the technology behind their cryptocoin? Once again, especially in contract.
For basically there happened two things, which both could be legal.
1. Technology was replaced with another one.
2. Which also increased amount of coins because of technology, not because the old script was making any more coins (which would have made the old script by their own definition not legitimate crypto currency).
Supposing they would decide in (Finnish) court that it indeed was a breach of contract. Then what would the consequences be?
Finnish laws are very weak in these kind of cases. Unlike in America where you can sue Macdonalds for a million for spilling hot coffee on your trousers, in Finland laws could be described as being reasonable, hence in MacDonalds case you in court would get a new coffee, your trousers washing expenses paid and possible pain killers paid, plus some small compensation for pain (i doubt it be even 1000 euros).
Therefore, My guess is that Finnish court would decide that due to breach of contract, you could cancel the deal you made and get your money back, but nothing else.
Which means that nothing happens, since from OneCoin investors point of view situation is that even their coins value just went down to 1/50, it is still anyway 6.5 euros each coin.
You maybe paid 1000 euros to get 1000 coins, therefore, do you take 1000 euros back and lose your coins, or keep your 6500 euro worth of coins and not cancel the deal?
Obviously they wouldnt cancel the deal, which means that in other words OneCoin is free to increase the amount of coins as much as they like, since even if they get sued from that, they dont lose anything and no one cancels their memberships.
Only point investors would be willing to sue OneCoin and get that cancellation, would be at point when OneCoin is in market and it crashes to 10 cent a coin due to too many coins in a market, at which point there could come a movement inside investors of “we were scammed when they made too many coins!” and they could in group decide to sue the company, but at that point i believe Finnish laws would say that you are too late to sue at this point anymore.
You should have done that 4 years ago when the change happened, not 4 years later when you noticed your investment didnt pan out.
What comes to false marketing possiblity. They would probably just get a warning of “dont do that again” or maybe a threat that if they do continue doing so, they will be fined x amount of Euros from doing so.
And that euro amount could even theoretically be somewhat high, but not really that high. I doubt it would go higher than 50 thousand. And if they would be fined instantly, then at max 10 thousand, and i doubt they would get even that.
Under Finnish law ruling, only way OneCoin would get hurt on this kind of possible breach of contract, is if all the Finnish OneCoiners would decide they want to cancel the deal and take their originally invested money back.
This would result in OneCoin also losing all the promotion rewards, since due to they themselves breaking the contract, they wouldnt be allowed to ask for promotion rewards back from leaving peoples uplines, since upline nor the leaving customer never breached the contract.
@From Finland
Thank you for that.
Just an FYI about the MacDonald’s lawsuit: segarlaw.com/blog/myths-and-facts-of-the-mcdonalds-hot-coffee-case/
Summary the coffee was served at 180-190°F and caused 3rd degree burns within 5-7 seconds on a 79 y/i’s inner thighs and … Privates. She was hospitalized for over a week and required skin grafts and cleaning of the wounds (read excruciating pain for days).
She was 20% at fault and received 80% of $200,000 in the final verdict. The (agency I forget) states that coffee served above 130° can cause “severe burns.”
It was an interesting case for which the story was sensationalized by media as “crying (and suing) over a minor coffee spill.”
😉
The Finnish justice system can’t do a thing to foreign companies operating outside our borders. It’s those individual ponzi pimps that gonna suffer the consequences from recruiting others to the scheme. The same goes for all other countries in the world as well.
In a way the phrase Tommi Vuorinen has said is sadly true: The company can’t be sued because it sells education.
@TimTayshun
Thanks for interesting article.
Heres a bit of comparison from suggested compensations for different kind of injuries in Finnish law:
oikeusministerio.fi/fi/index/julkaisut/julkaisuarkisto/henkilovahinkoasiainneuvottelukunnansuosituksia2011/Files/HEVA_suositukset_2011-06-09.pdf
(link is in finnish)
But just to point out:
Amputated finger: 500 – 3000 euros
Amputated leg (there were different kinds, but the kind where you in practice lose your leg and not just the end tip of it): 1500 – 10 000 euros.
Interestingly, it seems you actually get more money if they can get your finger or leg back, than from just amputating it, based upon it causing more trouble and pain when it is still possible to attach back:
Finger: 2 000 – 5 000 euros
leg: 3 500 – 18 000 euros
But compare that to Macdonalds coffee spill compensation and i suppose we talking of pretty different sums in here.
Again: Onecoin can’t be sued in Finland so this debate about differences in paid compensations from court rooms is a waste of time.
However, getting involved in Onecoin can be ruled as illegal. Check out how Global Pension Plan worked in Finland and what were the sentences. – At least one Finnish ponzi scammer was sentenced. GPP was unreachable because it was based outside Finland.
@ Onecapita
You say that OneCoin cannot be sued in Finland. Maybe….maybe not.
However, you do understand the investors can (and will be) sued and prosecuted, right?
In the USA, as it stands right now, OneCoin promoters are selling investments of a non-registered security.
They are now trying to remove the references to “rate of return” “free money” “500% rate of return” etc but it doesn’t matter.
And, adding an overpriced, stolen and copyrighted educational package to the security doesn’t change a thing.
The people who are using OneCoin to steal money from their friends, family and social media contacts for a 10% commission are the lowest of the low, IMO.
That’s exactly my point: Onecoin Ltd can’t be sued but anyone who has recruited people to join can be sued. As far as I understand it is not possible to sue a foreign company here in Finland…
Anyone can of course file a criminal report of a company but there’s no possibility to reach a company that operates outside Finnish borders. That’s most likely the cause why the Finnish NBI was so helpless with Onecoin and there was only a statement released warning about Onecoin.
I must emphasize that it is not considered a crime to send money to foreign scammers. That would put victims of a scam to a very awkward position. So being only an investor in Onecoin doesn’t count as a crime in Finland.
Then again whether one is an investor or a recruiter doesn’t matter when all possible profits are confiscated by our justice system. Any property and possessions bought with ponzi money is considered crime related so court will issue a restitution.
We have a similar situation here in the USA. Since OneCoin never registered to do business in the USA, anyone promoting them in the USA is doing so at great personal risk, based on previous case law.
What are you thoughts about the promoters asking their investors to send money to an off shore account in order to circumvent the laws of the land?
Here’s a list of OneCoin and OneLife promoters who are actively selling OneCoin here in the USA. I’d like to ask any of them to confirm and offer their comments.
Why are they still promoting OneCoin/OneLife in the USA?
Tom McMurrain
Kevin Foster
Sarah McGee
Glenn Smith
Carl Wilt
Ken Labine – Canada – recruits in USA
Sheri Hilliard-Pearce
Jason Richard Mangan
Charlotte Mangan
Joseph W Piper
Jodi Tressler Greene
Keith Bliss
Stan Harris
Mike DiGaetano
Michael & Latasha DeArmond
Jeff Shofner
John Reilly
Greg Knox
Ray Lopez
Bob Byrum
Willie Tubbs
Mary Spicer
Kaytee Godiva
Brent Patrick
Beverly Washington
Sandy Davis
Tory Bailey
Mark Halbig
Margie Scott
Erik Enriquez
Jack Palis
Patricia Ann
Jeff Litzenberger
Barbara Lloyd
Lucille Bolton Shannon
Alan C. Delaney
Andy McCormack
Joseph A Mitchell
Rick Harris
Katherine Clement
Erick Brent
Ellis Vernon
Dean Hackney
Tom Cao
Robert Townsend
Crystal Marie Spath
Belinda Aquino
Susan Bayerle
Jennifer Vloggity-Korol
Wayne Bailey
Shanna McCarty
Robin ‘Robertson’ Keith
Steve Stucke
I don’t know about U.S. but here in Finland I don’t think there is any other law to circumvent than the law against pyramid/ponzi schemes.
That’s the law our courts have applied to earlier pyramid scams in here. I’d suppose the financial regulators here are not interested in ponzi scams. Anyone is free to ship their money to scammers abroad.
The Finnish country manager Tommi Vuorinen has said that Onecoin sells education packages only to circumvent the rules of the financial regulation. However the real reason seems to be to avoid ponzi claims by stating that Onecoin only sells education. Well, in a way that’s true because the toy money isn’t worth shit.
@ Onecapita
If there’s one thing that’s consistent with all ponzi and pyramid schemes it’s that (almost) all of them claim to have a viable product.
Of course, the regulators and any intellectually honest person see right through this smoke screen. We can watch the Zeek Rewards court case to see this play out live.
There most certainly is.
Then again the Finnish NBI must have concluded that funding Onecoin doesn’t count as funding terrorism nor money laundering of Finnish citizens.
The NBI’s investigation took months and they clearly saw a lot of money moving but didn’t do a thing to stop it. My best guess is that it’s way easier to fight crime than stupidity.
What ever international standards there are they don’t seem to stop Onecoin from receiving large cash deposits. Yes, banks are freezing their accounts but they always seem to find new banks to exploit.