The co-founder of a gigantic $4 billion crypto pyramid scheme is pleading guilty to money laundering and wire fraud charges, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Karl Sebastian Greenwood co-founded the infamous OneCoin fraud with Ruja Ignatova, who’s known as “Cryptoqueen.”
Ignatova, the leader of the scam, has been a fugitive since 2017 and was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list earlier this year.
Greenwood and Ignatova started OneCoin in 2014 and operated the company as a multi-level marketing (MLM) network, according to the DOJ. OneCoin’s promotional materials indicate more than three million people ended up investing in their fraudulent crypto offerings. Greenwood and his colleagues allegedly falsely claimed that OneCoin maintained a private blockchain.
Explains the DOJ,
“OneCoin records show that, between the fourth quarter of 2014 and the fourth quarter of 2016 alone, OneCoin generated €4.03 billion ($4.56 billion) in sales revenue and earned ‘profits’ of €2.73 billion ($2.90 billion).
Ignatova served as OneCoin’s top leader until her disappearance from public view in October 2017. Greenwood was OneCoin’s ‘global master distributor’ and the leader of the MLM network through which the fraudulent cryptocurrency was marketed and sold.”
Greenwood was arrested in Thailand in 2018 and extradited to the United States later that year. He has been detained since his arrest and has pled guilty to the charges in a federal court in Manhattan. He faces a maximum potential sentence of 60 years in prison.
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