As I’m used to covering US legal proceedings, how indictments play out in Germany is a little strange. But bear with me.

Last November three OneCoin money launderers were indicted. Those indictments have now been approved by a District Court in Munster, paving the way for a criminal trial.

Two of the indicted defendants are cited as “owners” of IMS International Marketing Services.

IMS accepted payments from Onecoin investors and forwarded them to accounts all over the world.

By providing accounts and receiving funds from Onecoin customers, the defendants supported the Onecoin fraud.

In addition to providing payment services without a permit, the two owners are also accused of aiding and abetting fraud in a particularly serious case.

These two defendants are represented by the notorious law firm SBS Legal (formerly Schulenberg and Schenk).

Schulenberg and Schenk gained notoriety after they rubber-stamped OneCoin’s Ponzi scheme in 2015.

Named partner Stephan Schulenberg has  represented OneCoin in Germany and is believed to have acted as Ruja Ignatova’s personal lawyer.

IMS and all its associated shell companies are part of Frank Ricketts’ money laundering empire.

Ricketts was last tied to Corsair Group, a Ponzi scheme with roots in Cloud Horizon, a failed Ponzi scheme Ricketts started after OneCoin.

Ricketts last known whereabouts was Thailand. He remains at large.

The third suspect is an unidentified Munich lawyer.

He is accused of having moved 20 million euros to London so that a London law firm could use the money to buy property there.

In other cases he is said to have moved 75 million to the Cayman Islands to invest in funds, according to a spokesman for the court.

We believe the lawyer referenced is Munich lawyer Martin Rudolf Alexander Breidenbach.

Through the defunct Munich firm Breidenbach Rechtsanwalte, Breidenbach published the notorious 2014 OneCoin legal opinion.

BehindMLM has previously covered Breidenbach’s involvement in OneCoin, which includes standing in as a Director for at least one OneCoin shell company.

Reading between the lines, this is Ruja Ignatova’s luxury UK apartment.

A spokesman for the court says he expects the proceedings to be opened after the summer, but a specific date has not yet been set.

The trio are facing charges related to laundering over 300 million euros connected to OneCoin.

Whereas OneCoin money laundering cases in the US have been a slam-dunk, the outcome of the German case is up in the air.

Stephan Schulenberg previously managed to get two OneCoin scammers in Germany acquitted.

If you’re interested, BehindMLM reader Semjon provided us with a clear picture of the legal process the case is going through.

Court approval means the “intermediate proceedings” stage is over. We’ve now progressed to the “main proceedings” phase.

“After summer” puts us at sometime after August. Stay tuned…

 

Update 18th September 2021 – The trial of Frank Ricketts, Manon Hubenthal and Martin Breidenbach has begun.