OneCoin @ BehindMLM

Another day, another European regulator warns about OneCoin without actually doing anything about it. The latest regulatory warning against OneCoin is another from the Central Bank of Hungary. An advisory on the risk of cryptocurrencies dated December 20th singles out OneCoin as a pyramid scheme.

If the trend of single elderly European gentlemen attached to the MLM underbelly popping up in Asia left you thinking “hmmm”, rest assured for most of them it was purely a business decision. … Nah, just kidding.

Back in March Latvia’s Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC) issued a regulatory warning against OneCoin. Claiming OneCoin was “modeled on pyramid scheme principles” and unlicensed, the FCMC warned soliciting investment into OneCoin was a criminal offense. At the time it was uncertain whether the FCMC would take any further action against OneCoin or local affiliates. Nine [Continue reading…]

OneCoin’s ongoing banking problems have taken a sinister turn, with the company potentially shifting criminal liability onto some of its affiliates.

Slowly but surely, regulators in Europe are starting to tackle the OneCoin problem. Back in September it was confirmed that London police were investigating the scheme. Last week a criminal complaint was filed against one of Belgium’s top OneCoin promoters. Now in Italy, the Italian Antitrust and Consumer Protection Authority (AGCM) has ordered local affiliates to stop promoting OneCoin.

Earlier today BehindMLM reported on a criminal complaint filed in Belgium, related to the promotion of OneCoin. The Public Prosecutor’s Office has charged former politician Laurent Louis with pyramid selling, fraud, money laundering and violation of common and banking laws. As of yet the criminal complaint is in the early stages. La Libre however report [Continue reading…]

Despite having no actual physical presence there, OneCoin up until recently claimed to be a Gibraltar corporation. This was set up as OneCoin Limited, who Ruja Ignatova’s mother, Veska Ignatov, laundered money through via Pegaron Invest Limited, a Bulgarian company. OneCoin’s virtual office address was formerly provided by AMS Company Management Limited. On February 2nd, [Continue reading…]

Laurent Loius was a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives from 2010 to 2014. In 2014 Louis received a suspended sentence ‘for slander relating to accusations of pedophilia he had made against public figures’. In 2015 Louis was banned from running for office for six years. Earlier this year Louis began promoting OneCoin, which eventually [Continue reading…]

Back in May OneCoin announced they were rolling out UnionPay branded cards for their Chinese investors. Such was the misleading marketing around the cards, that UnionPay had to issue formal clarification that the cards could not be used to conduct transactions in OneCoin. The UnionPay cards were dummy cards that OneCoin affiliates could load up [Continue reading…]

Unable to use its own company name, OneCoin had been opening up banks with shell company accounts every few weeks. As fast as OneCoin could open up the accounts, it didn’t take long for them to trip money laundering filters and be shut down for fraud. Here at BehindMLM we’ve been tracking these account closures [Continue reading…]