Karl Sebastian Greenwood, the co-founder of the billion-dollar scam called OneCoin, pleads guilty to multiple charges of the United States Department of Justice. For that reason, he faces a prison sentence of up to 60 years.
Cable fraud and money laundering
The U.S. Justice Department announced on Dec. 16 that Greenwood pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan to charges of cable fraud, cable fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, bringing the total for Greenwood to 60 years.
Cable fraud is incidentally a form of fraud that uses some form of telecommunications or the Internet. Sam Bankman-Fried also has charges of this nature hanging over his head. With him it is only about more money and more charges, which can increase the maximum sentence even further.
The prosecutor said in his account that Greenwood has “one of the largest international fraud schemes ever” to his name and that he labeled OneCoin as a “Bitcoin killer”, when in reality the tokens turned out to be worthless. OneCoin was a Bulgarian company founded by Greenwood and Ruja Ignatova, known as the “Cryptoqueen”. OneCoin was also referred to as a “trashy coin” in emails between the two founders.
Greenwood walked all the way in
If we are to believe the US Department of Justice, Greenwood in his role as “global master distributor” earned about 20 million euros per year with the company. In total, more than $ 4 billion seems to have been raised by OneCoin. In June, Ingatova, the so-called “Cryptoqueen”, was put on a top 10 ‘most wanted’ list by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The arrest and trial of Greenwood should send a message to the rest, according to Damian Williams of the US Department of Justice. “Anyone who tries to commit fraud or other mischief through the crypto ecosystem will be caught,” said Williams. Greenwood will receive his final sentence on April 5, 2023.