The United States government has submitted a letter requesting that OneCoin leader Konstantin Ignatov be sentenced.
The letter was filed in the Southern District Court of New York on February 26, 2024.
The Government notes that the defendant committed serious crimes and lied on the witness stand when he testified at the United States v. Mark Scott trial as a cooperating witness for the government. However, after considering all of the Section 3553(a) factors, and because defendant has already served nearly three years in prison prior to sentencing, the Government agrees with the Probation Department’s recommendation and defendant’s request for his sentence—serving it’s apropriate.
Ignatov is the younger brother of Ruja, co-founder and top leader of OneCoin until her disappearance from public view in or around October 2017. In or around June 2016, Ignatov began working for OneCoin as a personal assistant to Ruja. In this role, Ignatov was responsible for coordinating travel and meetings for Ruja. Ignatov was unaware that OneCoin was a fraudulent scheme when he started working at OneCoin.
Starting in or around October 2017, after the disappearance of Ruja, Ignatov quickly rose to the level of a high-level executive and representative of OneCoin. Although Ignatov had no official title, he eventually became the de facto leader for OneCoin, mainly because he was Ruja’s brother. Ignatov also appeared at promotional events in Thailand, Singapore, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bulgaria, France and Spain. As the leader of OneCoin, Ignatov made fraudulent statements to investors about OneCoin’s structure, value, usability, and future public offering.
Despite a deeper understanding of OneCoin’s fraud scheme, Ignatov continued to maintain the scheme. In order to maintain the OneCoin fraud scheme, Ignatov made several misrepresentations to the public, including that OneCoin had a blockchain that was “easy to use, easy to mine.” that Ignatov had regular communication with Ruja. and that a purported merchant platform called Dealshaker was up and running with 50,000 merchants. These representations, among others, were false and intended to appease investors after the disappearance of Ruja and make them further invest in OneCoin.
Ignatov began volunteering to the government on or about July 29, 2019, approximately five months after he was charged by the Complaint. Ignatov met with the government for nine plea sessions before pleading guilty under a cooperation agreement. Ignatov continued to meet with the government after pleading guilty, primarily in order for the government to prepare Ignatov to testify at the November 2019 trial of co-conspirator Mark Scott.
Ignatov testified at that trial over the course of three days. Ignatov provided testimony on the following topics, among others: (1) historical testimony regarding OneCoin, the products offered by OneCoin, and the multi-level marketing structure used by OneCoin; (2) testimony regarding the fraudulent nature of OneCoin; and (3) testimony regarding OneCoin’s banking issues, and a high-level explanation of how OneCoin resolved those issues through the use of a network of money laundering companies, including Mark Scott.
The accused was arrested on a complaint on March 6, 2019 and remanded in custody. On May 28, 2019, he waived the indictment and an information was entered charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
On October 4, 2019, he again waived the indictment and, pursuant to a cooperation agreement, pleaded to an information charging him with: (1) one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud; (2) one count of wire fraud. (3) one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. and (4) one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. All four metrics involved the OneCoin scheme.
In November 2019, Ignatov testified as an accomplice in Scott’s trial.
On January 29, 2021, Ignatov was released from prison. On November 12, 2021, after the government learned of Ignatov’s perjury in the Scott trial, the defendant was remanded in custody. Bail was again granted on 14 November 2022. In total, the defendant has spent approximately 34 months in custody on the charges in this case.
Ignatov is the fifth defendant to be convicted in the case:
- On October 19, 2021, David Pike was sentenced to two years in prison. The range of Pike’s Guidelines was 6 to 12 months.
- On February 16, 2023, Gilbert Armenta was sentenced to 60 months in prison. The Armenta Directive range was 1,200 months. Armenta also entered into a cooperation agreement with the government, but he committed additional crimes after entering into his cooperation agreement and the government did not provide him with a Section 5K1.1 letter.
- On September 12, 2023, Karl Sebastian Greenwood, co-founder of the OneCoin project, was sentenced to 240 months in prison. Greenwood’s guideline range was 720 months.
- On January 25, 2024, Mark Scott was sentenced to 120 months in prison. Scott’s guideline range was 600 months.
Probation constitutes a sentence served and the defendant requested that sentence be served. The defendant is a citizen of Bulgaria who does not have status in the United States.