Mark S. Scott, an ex-partner of Biglaw was convicted for conspiring in bank fraud and money laundering charges. The federal court conviction clears the involvement of Mark in raising money through the Pyramid scheme. The lawyer committed the fraud through the OneCoin setup. The money was raised through OneCoin.
Before working at OneCoin, Mark was associated with Biglaw. According to the prosecutors, Mark had a key role in devising the money laundering scheme. In total, around $400 million was raised from this cryptocurrency scam. Mark’s lawyers tried a lot to turn him a victim instead of the convict by portraying him as being scammed by Ruja Ignatova, the co-founder of OneCoin. However, the argument was declined and not accepted by the jurors. Following a three-week trial, the verdict was announced against Mark.
According to the records, Mark Scott’s alliance with Ignatova surfaced in September 2015. After which Mark assisted Ruja in laundering hundreds of millions of dollars from OneCoin. As per the reports, the pyramid scheme helped raise around $4 billion. OneCoin which was introduced as a digital token to its investors did not have any transactions recorded on a blockchain. Because the token lacked a decentralized, public blockchain, it was nothing more than a pyramid scheme.
Prosecutors have cleared that the scheme made Mark around $50 million. This money was used by Mark for purchasing a yacht, multiple homes, and various luxury cars. It has also been deemed by Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. Attorney that Mark’s experience as a lawyer helped him to carry the scam under disguise for so long.
Geoffrey remarked, “Mark S. Scott, an equity partner at a prominent international law firm, used his specialized knowledge as an experienced corporate lawyer to set up fake investment funds, which he used to launder hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud proceeds. He lined his pockets with over $50 million of the money stolen from victims of the OneCoin scheme. Scott, who boasted of earning ‘50 by 50’ now faces 50 years in prison for his crimes.”
Arlo Devlin-Brown, one of the lawyers of Mark commented on behalf of Mark that he was not happy with the verdict of the jury and would appeal.
The sentence of Mark is scheduled on 21st February 2020. As per the frauds committed by Mark, he can be sentenced for up to 20 years for money laundering and a maximum possible sentence of 30 years for conspiring in bank fraud.