A judge in the U.S. has rejected a request by a lawyer who laundered $400 million from the Onecoin crypto pyramid to have a new trial. The ruling clears the path for sentencing 54-year-old Mark Scott despite a key prosecution witness admittedly lying in court.
Judge Not Convinced in Onecoin Lawyer’s Innocence Despite Lies Told by Witness
One of the lawyers who helped the organizers of the notorious crypto Ponzi scheme Onecoin launder money will not get a new trial despite the lies of a witness against him, the brother of Onecoin’s mastermind, “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova, Konstantin.
Prosecutors claimed that Mark Scott made $50 million for setting up a phony investment fund that was used to process funds that Ignatova, still wanted by the FBI, Interpol, and Europol, took from the scam which collected $4 billion from defrauded investors around the world.
Scott, a former Locke Lord partner, was found guilty in November 2019, Bloomberg reminded in a report. He used the money he received to pay for a lavish lifestyle, including purchases of expensive homes in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, luxury items and cars as well as a large yacht.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos denied his request for a new trial, stating he wasn’t convinced that “an innocent person may have been convicted” despite the lies of Konstantin Ignatov, one of the co-founders of Onecoin, from the witness stand.
Konstantin, who aided Ruja Ignatova in the fraud, was arrested in Los Angeles four years ago, pleaded guilty to Onecoin-related charges, sought witness protection in the United States, and agreed to testify against Mark Scott.
Scott’s defense sought a new trial based on claims about legal mistakes during the original one and evidence that Ignatov had given false testimony. Judge Ramos noted that prosecutors did not dispute that he lied about certain things.
His ruling now paves the way for Scott to be sentenced. “We are disappointed that the court did not grant a new trial given the undisputed evidence that the Government’s sole cooperating witness perjured himself,” Scott’s lawyer, Arlo Devlin-Brown, said in a statement, adding that his client intends to appeal the ruling.
Onecoin lured victims by offering them to invest in a fake cryptocurrency with the same name, branded as the “Bitcoin killer” at some point. It launched in 2014 and operated as a multi-level marketing scheme. Ruja Ignatova was last seen in 2017 and is still missing. Onecoin’s other co-founder, Karl Sebastian Greenwood, was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison in the U.S.
Do you think Mark Scott’s request for a retrial has sufficient grounds? Share your thoughts on the case in the comments section below.
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