Gilbert Armenta’s sentencing contingent on Mark Scott’s case
Gilbert Armenta was indicted on OneCoin fraud charges in July 2017. He pled guilty to the charges in April 2018.
Originally held in prison awaiting sentencing, Armenta was released on compassionate grounds in late 2020.
Since then Armenta’s scheduled sentencing dates have been continuously pushed back.
The official and now oft repeated reason for Armenta’s sentencing delay is “forfeiture and other sentencing related issues”. This doesn’t tell us much.
Now, a new filing from Armenta sheds light on what’s holding things up.
On July 13th Armenta’s attorney wrote to the court, requesting modification of his current bail conditions.
We respectfully submit this request seeking a modification of Mr. Armenta’s bail conditions to permit Mr. Armenta to leave his apartment from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays each week.
Neither the Government nor the supervising Pre-trial Services objects to this request.
Armenta (right) also sought permission to leave his home to attend any medical appointments scheduled between 9am and 6pm.
The requested modification is due to Armenta being under these conditions for two years without issue. This brings us to the the cause of the delay.
The parties have been seeking adjournments of Mr. Armenta’s sentencing in order to permit the sentencing in United States v. Mark S. Scott to proceed first, and contemplate seeking a similar adjournment of the upcoming sentencing date.
Armenta is currently scheduled to be sentenced on July 27th. As above though, that is undoubtedly again going to be pushed back.
Mark Scott headed up OneCoin’s money laundering operations in the US.
Scott was convicted on OneCoin money laundering charges in November 2019.
Sentencing Scott has proven equally as drawn out as Armenta’s case. In a bid to avoid prison, Scott filed for a retrial in December 2021.
A decision on that motion remains pending – with Armenta’s sentencing schedule held in the balance.
The court granted Armenta’s request for bail modification on July 14th.
I suspect Scott’s case is the reason Konstantin Ignatov’s case is also in limbo.
This clown gets more rights than Julian Assange.
Logical. The prosecution has to wait and see what Judge Ramos, who oversees all OneCoin prosecutions in the SDNY, will do with Ignatov.
If he stays in play as a cooperator despite multiple perjuries and violations of his cooperation agreement, which is unlikely, Armenta will have to step up in any new trial against Scott, and the Greenwood trial.
This is a systemic issue with the U.S. legal system. The Government is always ready to provide perks to gain convictions.
In a bottom to top prosecution that often works well, but to excuse the behavior of two top fraudsters of OneCoin to convict someone much lower in the scheme’s structure, is inexcusable.
Ignatov and Armenta should have been sentenced years ago after pleading guilty. It’s not complicated.
If Judge Ramos establishes prosecutorial misconduct in the Scott case, it will cause a major ripple effect in all OneCoin prosecutions. At least two of the SDNY’s prosecutors, Christopher DiMase and Nick Folly, are lead counsel on each of these prosecutions.
If there is wrongdoing by them, each defendant will request an investigation and challenge their indictments. Also great topic for appeal of course.
Out of everyone arrested so far, you have have Sebastian Greenwood at the top then Mark Scott.
Scott would be bumped down to third if Schneider is ever extradited to the US.
If Konstantin wasn’t related to Ruja Ignatova, he’d be on the same tier as Pierre Arrens, Pablo Munoz or the new guy.
I don’t agree. Scott is not even charged with the wire fraud. His case is purely related to money laundering.
Not sure how you leave Armenta out of the top defendants in the SDNY,which without a doubt are Ruja, Greenwood, Schneider, Dilkinska and Konstantin. Armenta and Konstantin share a 3rd place ranking in my book.
I read a lot of science fiction. A lot is said that if Ignatov gets 90 years, it’s meaningless because he’ll be dead in sixty anyway. The same with Ruja, Scott, Schneider, etc.
In dystopian futures convicts get drugged so that time moves more slowly and whatever they last will feel like 90 years. If they die in that time, their consciousness gets uploaded to a server.
This sounds exactly what the OneCoin scammers deserve. The US should put all of the recovered funds into making this happen
Absolutely amazing the US court system allows such continuous appeals and delays.
Bit of an interesting development in Armenta’s case:
On February 8th Matt Lee from Inner City Press filed a motion requesting Armenta’s sentencing memo and accompanying exhibits be unsealed.
DOJ and Armenta were directed to file a response by Feb 10th. Expecting filings later today and will check back next week for an order.
The DOJ’s sentencing submission for Armenta is also due Feb 10th.
justice.gov/usao-sdny/united-states-v-ruja-ignatova-et-al-and-gilbert-armenta