Mastercard denounce OneCoin, US event in Chicago
One of the big selling points for OneCoin up until March was the issuing of OneCoin branded Mastercard debit cards.
For the short time they were available, OneCoin affiliates could transfer withdrawal requests to the card and spend the money wherever MasterCard was accepted.
On March 17th OneCoin abruptly announced card approval and use of already issued cards was suspended.
Three days later it was revealed the owner of the company OneCoin was accessing the cards through, was part of a multi-million dollar drug gang.
No doubt aware of the impact of being able to mention “Mastercard” in OneCoin marketing presentations (not to mention the embarrassment of losing access to the cards in the first place), it seems OneCoin have been pursuing regaining access to the Mastercard network.
Unfortunately for them, Mastercard appear to have been investigating OneCoin themselves. According to a representative in Austria, another OneCoin branded Mastercard won’t launch any time soon.
ORF is the national public broadcaster of Austria. “Heute Konkret” is one of the shows that appears on the network, with an episode aired on June 16th featuring an investigative report into OneCoin.
Around five minutes into the episode Gerald Gruber, General Manager of Mastercard in Austria, is asked about OneCoin’s Mastercard debit cards.
The broadcast is in German, with BehindMLM reader Igor claiming Gruber ‘says that MC never authorized this and that they have taken steps several weeks ago to stop the card distribution.‘
Whether Gruber is talking about the cancelled cards in April or attempts by OneCoin to issue new debit cards is unclear. What is clear though is Mastercard as a company wants nothing to do with OneCoin.
Why, you might ask? That much should be obvious.
In related news it appears OneCoin investors in the US are again making a push to recruit US residents into the scheme.
Officially, OneCoin doesn’t operate in the US. Unofficially US investors invest in OneCoin through bitcoin and offshore shell companies.
Last year OneCoin announced an event in Las Vegas. The event received a fair bit of attention and was much-hyped by OneCoin and its affiliates on social media.
At the eleventh hour OneCoin cancelled the event and instead held a low-key webinar.
A few months later OneCoin promptly abandoned their short-lived US launch.
In various interviews, Ruja Ignatova claims OneCoin don’t operate in the US because “the rules are unclear”. This makes little sense, seeing as bitcoin and every other legitimate cryptocurrency are currently legal in the US.
Far more likely a reason for OneCoin running from the US is the fact that “the rules” for offering unregistered securities, operating a Ponzi scheme and committing wire fraud are very much clear.
As mentioned earlier, despite OneCoin’s official announcement, US residents are still investing and actively recruiting new investors into OneCoin.
OneCoin in the US is typically promoted through low-key team webinars and private Facebook groups.
The exact number of US-based OneCoin investors is unclear, however there appears to be enough of them now that public OneCoin recruitment events in the US have started up again.
In a “team leader call” among US and Canadian investors held on June 20th, a speaker on the call referred to only as “Bob” is introduced.
Bob is currently in Scotland promoting OneCoin and claims the business is “simple”.
[7:02] Get yourself as many coins as fast as you can. Help as many people as you can to get in the same position (as you) as fast as you can.
That’s the simplicity of what we do.
Bob then goes on to announce an upcoming OneCoin recruitment event in Chicago.
[14:11] There is a Chicago event happening this weekend … and we have top leaders, this is gunna be a great event if you can make it to Chicago.
June 24th and 25th, this is gunna be at the Hilton Garden Inn … that is in Schaumberg, Illinois.
[14:57] So Friday there is going to be a presentation at 5 o’clock.
[15:12] And then Saturday is going to be, it looks like an all-day event from 10:30 to 5:30.
None of the “top leaders” purportedly attending the event are named. Ditto whether OneCoin corporate have signed off on the event and/or are endorsing it.
Footnote: The OneCoin “team leader call” referenced in this article was held on June 20th and can be listened to below:
(Update: Shortly after this article was published the video linked to here was taken offline by the uploader.)
eventbrite.com has an announcement relating to the onecoin event in shaumburg, illinois.
it is posted by a Sheri Pearce, under the head “THE NEW CURRENCY EVENT”.
the currency is named as ‘New Coin Life Style Currency’ and there is no mention of ‘onecoin’.
the Top Speakers are named as :
-Tom McMurrain [top onecoin promoter and convicted fraudster]
-Dr. Stan Harris [pastor and motivational speaker]
-Tory Bailey [musician ]
-Jason Mangan [onecoin promoter]
tickets are being sold at $20 – $90
the announcement begins by saying:
eventbrite.com/e/the-new-currency-event-tickets-25624261857
Ondcoin bought an airplane!
glenn smith from the USA was promoting onecoin very visibly in the US in 2015, and holding recruitment events in restaurants and hotels.
after onecoin abandoned the US due to regulatory concerns, glenn smith moved to dubai and continued his career in onecoin by recruiting investors globally.
tom mcmurrain seems to have no fear of US regulators, as unlike glenn smith, he feels confident enough to host public onecoin events in the the US.
he’s been to jail as a convicted fraudster before, so i guess he’s familiar with jail life and it don’t scare him no more…
This is “Dr. Breakthrough” Stan Harris: drbreakthrough.com/index.php?id=about
He was in (paid?) attendance at Onecoin’s “Premiere Event” in Downey, California, last year in July, which I attended for the purpose of witnessing the brain-washing hoopla, first-hand.
Dr. Breakthrough is what you’d expect:fever-pitched enthusiasm for building false hopes, getting rich quick, and “breaking through” to friends, family, and anyone who will listen and “who’s lives you can change!!!” (While “breaking through” bricks and wooden boards with karate chops, of course).
on june 16, 2016 tom mcmurrain published a video promoting onecoin.
in true scamster style he tags the ‘credibility’ of onecoin to the forbes magazine cover [which was a paid advert], the participation in the european summit [which was because onecoin ‘sponsored’ the event and thus got ‘talk time’], the interview in financial IT [which was a paid interview], and the hiring of the prestigious wembley arena in london [a paid for private event].
he compares onecoin to bitcoin and ethereum, and wonders why tech magazines wont give onecoin ‘coverage’ as it is bigger and better than these other cryptocurrencies.
he forgets that ‘cointelegraph’ a leading crypto tech magazine has already covered onecoin under the heading ‘One Coin, Much Scam: OneCoin Exposed as Global MLM Ponzi Scheme’ and then added onecoin to its list of ‘top 5 bitcoin related scams for 2015’.
why does tom mcmurrain think the cryto world will pay attention to or ‘cover’ the onecoin cryptocurrency scam?
and oh, at around 4:10 in the video, mcmurrain launches an attack on behindmlm calling it a ‘smear rag’ which gets a traffic spike everytime a negative article on onecoin is published!
oz and behindmlm have become the bane of onecoin ponzi pushers! they just wont stop complaining. business just ain’t so good with all the ‘negative’ coverage on behindmlm 🙂
youtube.com/watch?v=yjoRLXMpWZ0
i wont be surprised if pastor stan harris is himself an investor in onecoin!
Don’t forget that OneFOREX is coming SOON! Yes, another way to steal your money.
Can’t wait to see the list of their traders with licenses as well as the company registered and licensed to do FOREX trading. Just more smoke and mirrors, froth and bubbles to keep members minds off not being able to get paid.
But glad to hear they are poking their nose into the U.S. Market. Guess we’ll have to arrange a welcome reception for them.
@anjali
anjali: the Top Speakers are named as :
-Tom McMurrain [top onecoin promoter and convicted fraudster]
Well, this time he is probably looking at 30+ years for a 2nd time conviction doing the same type of crime. Wont be too long I imagine before the SEC gets involved.
i have to note that rujamama seems to have undertaken the quest of keeping the official onecoin FB page ‘clean’ [as in removing negative comments], with renewed gusto.
for several weeks now, lots of ‘negative’ comments were popping up on their official FB page, and were being copied to forums like behindmlm, possibly causing distress to ruja&co.
today, i noticed that lots of unflattering comments posted over the last few days have gone missing.
the number of comments below the official posts of onecoin have gone down drastically because of this!
rujamama is now in damage control mode on FB, and her pet lapdogs like ken labine and tom mcmurrain are busy trashing behindmlm to keep her scam running through its last lap!
@anjali
With all the millions they got coming in, one would think they would have a decent social media damage control team.
Doesn’t take a lot to contract with someone in SE Asia, India, Philippines to monitor social media and manage the reputation?
@anjali –
I often notice that a post may say, for instance, “see 25 more comments” but when I open there are only maybe half a dozen or 10.
Either FB logs the number of comments despite ones which are later deleted by a moderator, or I have pretty much been blocked by 65% of all Onecoiners on FB. LMAO!!
I know this is the reason I can’t see Labine, Reilly and others comments, but I’m curious to know if deleted comments still register as having commented?
exactly!
i thought this was some error by FB, and you think its because you’ve been blocked by some oneconners.
so, it would seem that FB is logging the number of comments made, even if some are later deleted by the moderator.
Often you can see more comments in Onecoin’s Facebook page by choosing the option “most recent comments”. However even that won’t usually show all the comments.
I guess Facebook can’t keep up the with phase they are deleting posts.
Yeah, “in a few months” 🙂
It wouldn’t be hard to code a closed Onecoin play money derivative which would give OCer’s the illusion of FX trading, without offering any convertibility to the underlying instruments.
Allowing say a short OC/USD position to mature would obviously be a no-no, because it would circumvent their centralized capital control and establish a real market value for the tokens.
Same here! It’s incredible that in more of the cases, more than 50% of the comments are missing…
right! and while we try to solve the case of the disappearing comments [in rujamama’s self claimed ‘transparent’ business], let me copy one comment made 9 hrs ago, while ruja’s FB sweeping and mopping staff is still asleep:
aw rujubaby, get a bigger broom.
4 hours ago the onecoin official FB page has announced:
but onecoin is not traded on any open cryptocurrency exchange, it has no real world value, so how can it be traded against other currencies?
ed ludbrook, chief leadership officer of onecoin, has posted this message on his FB page 15 hours ago:
so, does this mean onecoin is ‘confirming’ that mastercard debit cards are not going to be issued anymore?
Sounds like it. Pending and pre-approved cards means OneCoin probably didn’t send the 100 EUR fee to the drug ring’s payment processor. The funds were never paid to Mastercard and so affiliates can be refunded.
Those who had cards approved and then cancelled are not being refunded.
@Oz
Looks like someone was making a killing peddling 100 Euro cards. One can get a private labeled card for 4-5 Euros cost if you have 10k+ applicants so another stream to scam blinded members.
jason mangan is from illinois, USA and in the downline of tom mcmurrain.
they promote onecoin in the US under the name of ‘the new currency’, probably because onecoin is operating illegally and under the radar in the US.
together, they also push something called the ‘new currency university’ on their onecoin affiliates. the ‘new currency university’ purportedly sells ‘education’ and tricks for recruiting more investors into onecoin.
they charge $100 [approx] for the new currency university courses. this is on top of the investments made into onecoin by their downlines. so mcmurrain and mangan are making [double] hay while the [onecoin] sun shines!
also, concerning onecoins latest product offering ie the ‘tablet’, i failed to find any enthusiasm about it on affiliate FB pages. so it was pleasantly surprising to see top US onecoin recruiter jason mangan, thrilled to the gills over this ‘tablet’:
aw, jason mangan bought the overpriced tablet just to ‘help’ the company and business. ruja needs more money and mangan can make commissions forcing the tablet down his downlines throats.
and paying 550 euros for a tablet worth 50 euros? just how expensive is it to stick some logos and download some onecoin company functions onto the tablet?
but i guess mangan being a ‘leader’ has to set an ‘example’ and then encourage his downline to ‘duplicate’ it!
so will anyone buy this onecoin tablet at retail? anyone?
nevertheless, americans like carl wilt have been very busy marching through many US states, beating the onecoin drum.
carl wilt’s FB page is a testament to his travels across the length and breath of USA, holding meetings for ‘educating’ people about ‘digital currency’ ie recruiting people into onecoin.
i lost count, but among the states mentioned are tennessee, texas, california, colorado, minnesota, massachusetts etc etc etc.
looks like onecoin is very busy in the US, albeit under the radar.
ruja, parhiala and greenwood et all, will never enter the US, so greedy dumbasses like mcmurrain, mangan and wilt are onecoin’s readymade fall guys, if US regulators crack their whip.
Jason Mangan, a Capitalize Each Word Writer… I think, given time, he could mature to Latrine levels of rhetorical stupidity.
“This is So Big for all of Humanity.”
“For all The Simple Minded People That want to learn Exactly what The New Currency is all about…”
“My Soul Passion is To Connect with My Prime Divine Creator. Who Created my Soul and the Laws of life.”
Way To Go, Jason. 🙂
Now they have a big red bullseye on them…
troy dooly has a video out with his opinion about onecoin. he says onecoin will not pass muster in the US, and wont pass the howey test and could be a ponzi scheme.
dooly claims he has spoken to some onecoin affiliates in the US [onecoin do not officially work in the US], who have said that they are not worried about regulators in the US and elsewhere, because they have taken measures to protect their assets. i guess this means they have squirreled their onecoin earnings into offshore accounts to protect them from any future clawback.
i dont know how happy these onecoin affiliates will be, about troy dooly disclosing what they’ve said to him. tomorrow, if US regulators step in, they could well ask troy dooly to disclose the names of these affiliates who admitted to securing assets abroad.
meanwhile, one of the top onecoin USA affiliates joby boughey, has visited 15 countries promoting onecoin in 2016 alone. he must have a huge treasure chest buried in some offshore bank!
I stopped spending much time at Troy’s blog ever since his involvement with Zeek Rewards.
However, although I wonder why it took him so long to do so, I do give him credit for finally commenting on OneCoin.
He basically just reiterated the points most of us have been discussing here at BehindMLM for the past year and a half. However, there was ONE additional comment that got my attention.
He mentions that if his opinion that OneCoin is a ponzi scheme is correct, the promoters here in the USA run the risk of criminal prosecution, especially those who have moved their profits off shore. He states that “intent” is one of the red flags that typically triggers the potential of criminal charges.
As has been reported here many times, OneCoin was going to open the USA but in Oct. 2015, they cancelled the Las Vegas event and abandoned plans to launch in the USA.
Although I don’t have first-hand knowledge that OneCoin reps are doing this, in order earn their 10% commission on new investors money they bring to OneCoin, it appears they have been foolishly trying to circumvent the laws of the land by wiring money off shore.
Note: This action leaves an easy to follow money trail.
Attention OneCoin Promoters in the USA:
You might want to watch the video just published on this subject by Troy Dooly and decide for yourself. Is the 10% commission and overrides earned from bringing new investors to OneCoin really worth the risk to your reputation, potential civil and criminal issues and subsequent clawbacks down the road?
And, most importantly, what will you say to your friends, family members and social media contacts who invested their hard-earned money into the scheme. Will you take their call when they wake up one morning in the not too distant future and read the headlines, “OneCoin investors lose over a hundred million dollars in Ponzi scheme.”
Plus, I am not an attorney, but it also seems possible that your investors could sue each of you for the role you played in their financial loss.com
I am more convinced than ever that this is not going to end well for a lot of people.
“As long as greed is stronger than compassion, there will always be suffering.” Rusty Eric
So, how does it work if I learned from an inside “anonymous” source, who does NOT wish to be named, that the EXACT dollar amount which Ted Nyuten (businessforhome.com) is being paid by Onecoin is not a penny less or a penny more than exactly $40,000?
I believe my source. I have met him once. And he has enough background evidence to certainly substantiate and “prove” that, but He wishes to remain anonymous, for personal and security reasons.
Is this information even useful, if I can’t provide anything to substantiate it other than he is my “anonymous source?” If he comes under investigation and the exact amount of “$40,000” – no less, no more, can be verified …..
…is that component even “usefull,” at all?
I am working on a way to substantiate it, but without revealing sources, it seems uselss :/
Any suggestions what to ask? Say? Explore? etc? It seems this would be important, but not if I must protect the source :/
The claim is that Ted Nyuten is on Onecoin’s payroll for exactly $40K. But, I can’t reveal the source. What to do next?
Maybe one thing you could ask the source is if you can reveal it to Oz for verification so he might write ANOTHER expose on Ted with promise not to reveal your source.
Not that brainwashed MLMers will listen, but the more publicity the better.
Btw, what is her motive for telling you?
It’s not useful without proof. With proof there’s definitely interest in exposing OneCoin’s paid PR channels.
@Oz – your video link in the story went dead. Here is a saved one if you wish to use it: youtube.com/watch?v=mF9cQNe3pS8
The below comment was from a thread discussion on this Mastercard story, but is not exactly 100% related. On the other hand, I didn’t know where else to post it (Alex is the one who sent the Live link above)
@Tim
That’s weird, wonder what the story is. Thanks for catching that.
I see the US OneCoin investors were quick to remove their team call video too. Run Forest, run.