OneCoin @ BehindMLM

When you’re sitting on the internet all day posting inspirational memes and marketing your lastest MLM underbelly scheme, it’s easy to forget you’re pitching to real people. As two OneCoin scammers in India recently found out, some victims are all too willing to take matters into their own hands.

Whatever hopes OneCoin affiliates had of getting their money out of the scheme have been dashed, after it was announced the xCoinx internal exchange will remain closed. The news was broken to OneCoin affiliates over the weekend, tacked onto the end of a video message by Founder Ruja Ignatova.

In a public notice published yesterday, the Nigerian SEC has issued a warning against cryptocurrencies and pyramid schemes. OneCoin, SwissCoin and Bitcoin are specifically singled out, with the SEC extending the warning to “such other virtual or digital currencies”.

From banking to marketing to daily operations, OneCoin is a myriad of shell companies with one goal: to effectively launder as much money from as many people from as many locations as possible via Ponzi fraud. As an added bonus, OneCoin can use their voluminous shell companies for plausible deniability if a regulator shuts them down. [Continue reading…]

Earlier this month the Italian Antitrust and Consumer Protection Authority (AGCM) had issued cease and desists against local OneCoin affiliates. Yesterday the AGCM issued an interim injunction against One Network Services, effectively banning the promotion of OneCoin in Italy.

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.