OneCoin co-founder Greenwood gets 20 years in US jail for fraud, money laundering

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Karl Greenwood will also have to pay back the $300 million he made in commissions in the OneCoin pyramid scheme.

Karl Greenwood, co-founder of OneCoin with Ruja Ignatova, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to pay $300 million in the United States on Sept. 20. Ignatova remains at large.

Greenwood, who is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Sweden, was sentenced in the U.S. Southern District Court of New York. In a statement by the U.S. Justice Department, U.S. Attorney Damien Williams called OneCoin “one of the largest fraud schemes ever perpetrated.” The multilevel marketing and Ponzi scheme reaped $4 billion from 3.5 million victims, the statement said, adding:

“In reality, unlike legitimate cryptocurrencies, OneCoin had no actual value.”

The OneCoin team compared its product to Bitcoin (BTC) in sales pitches, but did not have, in the words of the Justice Department, “a true blockchain — that is, a public and verifiable blockchain,” any mining operations or even as many coins on its private blockchain as it sold.

Related: OneCoin movie starring Kate Winslet coming soon

Greenwood has been in custody since 2018, when he was extradited from Thailand. He pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and money laundering in December and could have received a sentence of up to 60 years. He is said to have made over $300 million through a 5% commission on all OneCoin sales and to have spent lavishly on luxury goods and the corresponding lifestyle.

Ignatova has not been seen since October 2017 and is on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Ten Most Wanted List. A number of other OneCoin executives are facing justice, however.

OneCoin former head of legal and compliance Irina Dilkinska was charged in the United States with one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in March. Ignatova associate Christopher Hamilton was reportedly set to be extradited to the United States on fraud and money laundering charges in August 2022.

Magazine: Crypto Crimes Rated: From the Twitter Hackers to Not Your Keyser, Not Your Coins

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