Greenwood “facing extraordinary exposure” in OneCoin case
OneCoin co-founder Sebastian Greenwood has fired his attorneys on the eve of a pretrial conference.
In a filing requesting permission to withdraw from the case, Greenwood’s former attorney claims he’s “facing extraordinary exposure”.
Greenwood’s new attorney filed an appearance on February 20th. His prior attorney filed for withdrawal on February 22nd.
We are writing because our client has terminated his relationship with our office and hired new counsel, and thus we are requesting leave
to withdraw as counsel in accordance with New York’s Rules of Professional Conduct.We appreciate that this request is complicated by the history of attorneys who have been retained and terminated in the course of these proceedings.
The case had been pending for years before we were hired as counsel, and we received the Court’s good graces after we were retained
in order to facilitate our ability to receive and review the discovery.However, Mr. Greenwood is facing extraordinary exposure in this matter.
Greenwood’s attorney shuffle saw his pre-trial conference rescheduled from February 24th to April 28th.
In light of defense counsel’s trial schedule, the parties respectfully request an adjournment of approximately two months of the pretrial conference to permit defense counsel sufficient time to review discovery and consult with the defendant.
After Greenwood’s new attorneys review the case and conclude he’s screwed, we’ll be back at square one.
Greenwood (right) was indicted in 2018.
Following his subsequent arrest in Thailand, he was quietly extradited to the US.
Since then Greenwood has been locked up at MCC New York.
There Greenwood continued to commit financial crimes through an illegally obtained cellphone.
I’m not sure how many attorneys Greenwood (right) has hired and fired thus far, but the court’s patience is probably running thin.
Greenwood has thus far rejected plea deals and intends to go to trial. But not without a miracle lawyer it seems.
There are 450+ entries on the Scott case docket. I don’t want to sift through them to find Greenwood’s attorney appearances :D.
This never ends. It’s like some ongoing Kafkaesque nightmare.
UK “leaders” are holding events today
Quelle Surprise…
I do not see how Sebastian could possibly not be found guilty. Like you said, he would need a miracle attorney.
Is there some cape crusader that will fly in and save Sebastian? Or will he go down like Michael Meyers and keep rising from the flames?
I’ll unravel the mystery of Christopher John Hamilton for he plays key role in why Sebstian et al got targeted by the Feds and City of London Police in the first place.
His name wasn’t directly mentioned in the Mark Scott trial but one can get track about his involvement from the court transcript, from the Rosalind Ocotober’s testimony on how the US investigation started:
(storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.482287/gov.uscourts.nysd.482287.203.0.pdf)
Viola Asset Management is Christopher Hamilton company.
In fact Hamilton had several Viola branded companies in UK (find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/1gxXtEz81Cy9LBk_L1aiu3xTd1Q/appointments).
Two of them — the oldest — were originally drilling companies which got renamed as Viola entities in 2015/2016. (More later why this is signifigant)
Judging from that and some other other of his older companies, Hamliton apparently has background in engineering/construction/exploration.
UK incorporated ViolaFX was Hamilton’s firm run under MercuryFX’s license (–> web.archive.org/web/20171210011635/http://violafx.net/ –>”Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority 531127 –> register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=001b000000MgHEJAA3).
This is very clearly the mistranscribed “Mercury Effects” from the quoted transcript passage.
Courtnews.uk article reveals that:
(courtnewsuk.co.uk/onecoin-money-launderer-lived-in-bridgend/)
So he was targeted by COLP and allegedly was arrested in April 2016. I managed to dug this now deleted(!!!) April 2016 press realase from COLP which doesn’t mention OneCoin or Hamilton but is clearly about this case (Ponzi, big time organized crime, Hamilton’s age, drilling companies):
(web.archive.org/web/20170602161715/https://www.cityoflondon.police.uk/news-and-appeals/Pages/Massive-money-seizure-made-by-City-of-London-Police-following-South-Wales-arrest.aspx)
The author of the paywalled Times article on Hamilton recently tweeted:
(twitter.com/jameshurley/status/1496070058610769920)
Hamilton is the person who got extorted by Armenta and Morro, because Hamilton stole 30 million OneCoin crimnals proceeds from Armenta (walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/ex-marine-accused-blackmailing-petrified-16086793).
This Hamilton extorition shceme was what orignal sole charge which got Armemta arrested in September 2017:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.480724/gov.uscourts.nysd.480724.4.0.pdf
This also connects Hamilton to another recent SDNY case by the “OneCoin prosecutors” Dimase and Folly, namely the Wirecard linked Eaze pot sales transaction laundering trial involving a Jan Marsalek’s good friend “porn baron” Ray Akhavan (–>cms.megaphone.fm/channel/wirecardsaga?selected=CSN2896226289), which ended up in convictions.
A key witness in the case named Oliver Hargreaves was also arrested because he was the other person who tried to extort Armenta’s OneCoin monies from Hamilton with the ex-marine Domic Welsh:
https://behindmlm.com/companies/onecoin/armentas-onecoin-class-action-lawyers-gone-in-just-3-weeks/#comment-435370
Here is Hargreaves’ SDNY docket:
courtlistener.com/docket/59806569/united-states-v-hargreaves/
His extortion scheme criminal complaint is prefaced by description of Armenta-Hamilton Onecoin money laundering scheme:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.557883/gov.uscourts.nysd.557883.1.0.pdf
In the latest filing in the Hargreaves docket, it’s revealed:
This comes back to what the Times reporter tweeted about Hamilton extradition proceedings. There is a sealed case in which Hargreaves is to testify. This could be the rumoured US Wirecard case…
The plurar indicates that Hamilton isn’t the only target. Who knows, it could refer to Frank Schneider too, but more likely figures like Simon Dowson or Robert Courtneidge.
The COLP probably dropped the its OneCoin investigation against Hamilton because it has outsourced the law enforcement to Americans.
Acturally charging organized crime & cleptocrat money launderers like Hamilton (or Max von Arnim ) or denying them FCA licenses in Londongrad, would be serious threat to City of Londongrad’s business model — so better let Americans do it.
@Semjon – you never cease to amaze!
You and a few others here, in addition to and on top of Oz efforts, continue to keep the battered and barely afloat ponzi incredibly up-to-date and thrilling by peeling the layers back and shedding additional light from its shadows.
What actual proof is there that Max von Arnim is somehow some kind of guru at money laundering?
Max von Arnim features in the court transcript often as a key person when Ruja wants to discuss sensitive money launderig deals, so I think it’s a sensible conclusion.
For example, here Ruja feels important to Max to the same meeting in Sofia with Scott and mob laywer Viktor Rashev:
Max was Ruja’s henchman also when she wanted to arrange 100 million for an oil deal with Venezuelan state oil company:
Max was also cc:d in a mail about a deal that was so poisoned by OneCoin link that Scott felt necassary to terminate the scheme for him and Pike:
@ Semjon
That says a lot. Thanks.
Is it RavenR London or RavenR Dubai that the “JV” would be with?
Seconded.
What I’m getting is Christopher John Hamilton has probably been Sebastian Greenwooded to the US or is pending extradition.
UK authorities have deferred to the US again because apparently they’re incapable of prosecuting money laundering cases.
Others have likely also been indicted and prosecuted, but we won’t know anything until this wide net tightens.
I wonder how much of this is playing in the rolling delays on known OneCoin criminal cases concluding…
However, their abilities in releasing self-congratulatory press copy are second to none.
When I saw “City of London Police” in Semjon’s excellent write-up (nice work, Semjon!), I thought, “$50 will get you $250 they’ll punt it.” And…they did.