Latvian regulator: OneCoin modeled on a pyramid scheme
Latvia’s Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC) is
an autonomous public institution, which carries out the supervision of Latvian banks, credit unions, insurance companies and insurance brokerage companies, participants of financial instruments market, as well as private pension funds, payment institutions and electronic money institutions.
Part of the FCMC’s duties see them engage in consumer protection, with the regulator yesterday issuing a warning against OneCoin.
According to the FCMC, OneCoin is ‘modeled on pyramid scheme principles‘. The regulator goes on to warn that
unlicensed merchants and other similar organizations are not nationally monitored, and thus the interests of (Latvian) citizens are not protected.
OneCoin is of course not licensed to offer investments in Latvia. This in turn means that soliciting investment from Latvian nationals constitutes “unlicensed business activities”.
Unlicensed business activities, (such as) soliciting deposits or other repayable funds is a criminal offense.
Whether or not the FCMC will take further action against OneCoin and/or local promoters is unclear.
Earlier this week Norway’s Direct Selling Association also labeled OneCoin a pyramid scheme.
Vietnam Department of E-Commerce and Information Technology has now issued a warning to it’s countrymen about getting involved in schemes like OneCoin, etc.
tuoitre.vn/tin/can-biet/20160311/khuyen-cao-ve-giao-dich-tien-ao-tren-cac-website-thuong-mai-dien-tu/1065574.html
Maybe the ball is finally rolling….
That’s actually one of the more comprehensive lists of MLM Ponzi point scams I’ve seen a regulator make to date.
Shame authorities in Bulgaria are asleep at the wheel though. Or if they are investigating, hell it’s taking them a while… this has already spiraled well and truly out of control.
Even though relying on translation from Google, I can’t help thinking the reference to “investors transferring money, but not getting money conversion” in:
Domestically, the police office also received more applications of investors report being partners denunciations online shopping fraudulent appropriation of property, after the transfer of cash to the account of the object, but does not get the money conversion electronics.
maybe speaking of the crypto Ponzi schemes?
They’re going after the local recruiters, who took the local’s money and promised to convert them into Ponzi points (tokens, cryptocoins, whatever), and when the victims don’t see themselves getting credited online they think their upline stole their money, which may or may not be true.
There were a lot of similar sub-scams going on with the Ponzi/pyramid scams. When TVI Express was around, the major “local” organizers are pocketing the money directly and was basically enrolling additional people with “free” reentry positions they got for cycling once through.
TelexFree, WCM777, and maybe even Zeek and other schemes have local leaders taking money directly from locals and pocketing them. They may or may not have intended to pay for the actual positions. The “payment problems” at these schemes didn’t help matters.