[ad_1] <br><div id=""><p class="fnmMv geuMB alqtB wqIGQ"><span>NEW YORK -- </span>A co-founder of the fraudulent cryptocurrency OneCoin, a pyramid scheme that conned billions of {dollars} from buyers worldwide, pleaded responsible to wire fraud and cash laundering expenses, U.S. prosecutors stated Friday.</p><p class="fnmMv geuMB alqtB wqIGQ">Touted as a “Bitcoin killer,” prosecutors stated the purported cryptocurrency co-founded by Ruja Ignatova and Karl Sebastian Greenwood in 2014 in Bulgaria was truly nugatory. Although marketed as a cryptocurrency, it was by no means mined utilizing computer systems and there was no public and verifiable blockchain. The worth of OneCoin was not set by provide and demand, however by its operators, they stated.</p><p class="fnmMv geuMB alqtB wqIGQ">Greenwood, 45, was arrested at his island residence in Thailand in 2018 and extradited to the USA. He pleaded responsible Friday in federal court docket in Manhattan.</p><p class="fnmMv geuMB alqtB wqIGQ">Greenwood, a citizen of Sweden and the <a target="_blank" class="uOtk efBMc LIsPj wIScF " tabindex="0" id="_ap_link_United Kingdom_UnitedKingdom_" href="https://abcnews.go.com/alerts/UnitedKingdom" rel="noopener">United Kingdom</a>, has been detained since his arrest.</p><p class="fnmMv geuMB alqtB wqIGQ">U.S. Lawyer Damian Williams stated Greenwood helped function one of many largest worldwide fraud schemes in historical past. His workplace stated victims invested greater than $4 billion.</p><p class="fnmMv geuMB alqtB wqIGQ">“Greenwood’s lies have been designed with one aim, to get on a regular basis folks everywhere in the world to half with their hard-earned cash — actual cash — and to line his personal pockets to the tune of lots of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars},” Williams stated in an announcement.</p><p class="fnmMv geuMB alqtB wqIGQ">Ignatova, nicknamed the Cryptoqueen and described as OneCoin’s high chief, disappeared in October 2017 and stays at massive. In June, she was added to the FBI’s Prime Ten Most Wished Record and there's a $100,000 reward for data resulting in her arrest.</p><p class="fnmMv geuMB alqtB wqIGQ">OneCoin’s progress was fueled by multilevel advertising, during which members acquired commissions for recruiting others to buy cryptocurrency packages.</p><p class="fnmMv geuMB alqtB wqIGQ">Although Ignatova boasted that OneCoin could be “the <a target="_blank" class="uOtk efBMc LIsPj wIScF " tabindex="0" id="_ap_link_Bitcoin_BitCoin_" href="https://abcnews.go.com/alerts/BitCoin" rel="noopener">Bitcoin</a> killer,” she and Greenwood referred to it as “trashy coin” in electronic mail correspondence. In a single electronic mail, Greenwood referred to buyers as idiots.</p><p class="fnmMv geuMB alqtB wqIGQ">Greenwood pleaded responsible to 1 depend of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one depend of wire fraud and one depend of conspiracy to commit cash laundering. Every depend carries a most sentence of 20 years in jail.</p><p class="fnmMv geuMB alqtB wqIGQ">He will likely be sentenced April 5.</p></div> <br>[ad_2] <br><a href="https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibmh0dHBzOi8vYWJjbmV3cy5nby5jb20vVGVjaG5vbG9neS93aXJlU3RvcnkvYm9ndXMtYml0Y29pbi1raWxsZXItY3J5cHRvY3VycmVuY3ktZm91bmRlci1wbGVhZHMtZ3VpbHR5LTk1NDQ1MDcz0gFyaHR0cHM6Ly9hYmNuZXdzLmdvLmNvbS9hbXAvVGVjaG5vbG9neS93aXJlU3RvcnkvYm9ndXMtYml0Y29pbi1raWxsZXItY3J5cHRvY3VycmVuY3ktZm91bmRlci1wbGVhZHMtZ3VpbHR5LTk1NDQ1MDcz?oc=5">Source link </a>