OneCoin tells Norway it has no information on local affiliates
One of the recurring themes in OneCoin circles is a lack of transparency.
What’s left of the company rarely communicates with what’s left of its affiliate investor-base. And when announcements are made, they inevitably lead to more questions, most of which go unanswered.
The good news is it’s not just affiliate investors being kept in the dark. Regulators asking OneCoin for information are being denied too.
The Norwegian Gaming Board began investigating OneCoin on or around April 2016.
As part of their investigation, the Gaming Board requested information from OneCoin regarding their business practices.
The company failed to respond to repeated requests for the information.
Last we heard, the Gaming Board had requested information on OneCoin’s Norwegian affiliates in mid 2017.
Despite having an active local affiliate investor-base promoting the scheme, OneCoin told the Gaming Board it had “no business in Norway”.
More recently, OneCoin affiliates holding an event in Gardermoen were served a request for information on
- Norwegian OneCoin affiliates; and
- accounting reports that can be used to verify external revenue generation.
The Gaming Board approaching OneCoin’s affiliates directly was floated back in early 2017, but for whatever reason the Gaming Board is only now acting on it.
For those familiar with OneCoin’s business model, the request for information should come as no surprise.
OneCoin has no verifiable source of revenue other than affiliate investment. Said revenue from new OneCoin affiliates is used to pay direct and residual recruitment commissions.
Up until January 2017 it was also used to honor OneCoin ROI withdrawal requests.
Providing this information to the Gaming Board would confirm OneCoin is a scam, and so here’s the nonsensical reply the Gaming Board received regarding their latest request:
The person replied that there are no accounting figures to be disclosed, and also rejected revenue from the replacement of new members.
“What we have as income from the company is to be seen as direct bonuses directly based on the sale of educational packages,” he writes in his letter of reply.
Even if the Gaming Board were to entertain the “educational packages” ruse, that 100% of educational packages are purchased by affiliates would still make OneCoin a pyramid scheme under Norwegian law.
And the claim that “there are no accounting figures to be disclosed” should be eye-opening too.
How is that a company that is believed to have solicited billions in investment globally has no accounting? Not even internal accounting?
How is OneCoin paying its taxes then? And I mean seeing as everything OneCoin is centralized, surely the company is registered to offer securities in at least one jurisdiction, right?
No of course not.
As it stands the Gaming Board has been able to wrangle out of OneCoin that they have around 5000 affiliate investors nationally.
The company however has failed to clarify how much these affiliates have invested, or the source of commission revenue within its MLM business model.
Speaking with E24, Silje Amble, a representative from the Gaming Board, confirmed the OneCoin investigation is ongoing.
“We have a case where we have entered into a dialogue with the company’s lawyer, and also requested required information (be) disclosed,” said Amble to E24.
She did not want to comment on how they will pursue the case further.
“We can not (discuss that with) the media,” she said.
E24 also got in touch with OneCoin’s Norwegian lawyer, Per Danielsen.
Danielsen explained the reason they were unable to provide the Gaming Board with the requested information is because
The company is worldwide and does not have separate figures for Norway.
So much for OneCoin’s much boasted about KYC I guess. Like everything else in the business, that appears to have been baloney too.
On the backend it would be relatively straight-forward for OneCoin to provide the Gaming Board with the requested information.
They know where their affiliates are from and through which shell company Norwegian investors invested funds through.
I know the Gaming Board has to exhaust every avenue as part of their investigation, but sooner or later they’ve got to realize OneCoin isn’t going to admit they’ve been running a pyramid scheme.
There is no external revenue and 100% of commissions paid out in OneCoin are tied to recruitment.
These are the facts anyone can verify by going through OneCoin’s business model.
Update 30th June 2023 – OneCoin lawyer Per Danielsen has been disbarred for dishonesty.
But the KYC information was so thoroughly vetted that it sometimes took months to verify and that info was even woven into the onecoin’s blockchain, they shouldn’t need separate records.
Just show the Gaming Board the blockchain, all the requested info is there.
(I almost typed that with a straight face.)
@Glim Dropper – Indeed! I think it must be poor workmanship by the “development team” who tried to connect the real “Onecoin blockchain* to the back office, but got scared off prematurely during the 2day international Police raid last January before the project was complete. Lol. SMH.
Same issue which caused “Coin Safe” *coins* to be lost and miscalculated for 7 1/2+ months …cue Igor CEO in 3… 2… 1…
Since I know that the major promoters of OC in Norway would want to provide the Norwegian Authorities all their information, I volunteered the information to the Norwegian Authorities on: Naveed Tavakoli, Max Nilsenius, Kim Sundvik, Patrik Blom, and Rune Fjortoft. I know how shy they all are about wanting to toot their own horn for their role in OneCoin. It’s the least I could do as a public service.
I am sure they were all very appreciative of my providing the authorities their information so they didn’t have to take time away from their promotion of OneCoin.
@Lyndell – bless your heart. With so much hustle and bustle around pimping the next get (me) rich scheme, it’s the least you could’ve done. I’m sure you’ll get beautiful decorative Christmas cards from them, which you can hang on your mantle 😉
(in other words, GOOD JOB!)
At least the Norwegian Authorities Thanked Me for the information.
yet another example of falsehoods from OC who lauded their special feature of KYC documentation as a special distinguishing feature of their arrangements with their Affiliates.
As many will know the KYC system took ages to gain approval and was one of the reasons that Affiliates were unable to practically cash out the minuscule amounts theoretically available–along with IT Maintenance issues,the exponential growth they were experiencing and similar excuses.
I assume the alleged purpose of the KYC procedures was to prevent money laundering –at least that was what we were told.
So in Norway (and elsewhere) just submit your complaints to your local authorities and name other OC members so they can get their lists together to work out the family trees.
Having said that all this information is held in back office account details so maybe it is time to raid the offices in Bulgaria again!! Or maybe the Data Centres where the alleged coins are mined.
Well done Lyndell and we can all see the momentum is now gearing up to say the least to close down this scheme. If any Investors want to claim any potential refunds from the Receiever their formal complaints will need to be logged.
Further to above post this relates to USFIA and will presumably apply to OC if the receiver gets involved simialarly (see other links on main pages)