An international criminal organization involved in money laundering using the MLM company OneCoin’s cryptocurrency was busted in a special police operation. As reported by the Specialized Prosecution Office, the investigation was conducted based on an international legal assistance request from the German city of Bielefeld.
The Bielefeld prosecution has requested that the Bulgarian One Network Services Ltd. company be investigated, including two Bulgarians with German citizenship.
The Bulgarian police has established the location of the servers in Sofia, as well as a number of associated parent companies, used by the international crime ring. The offices of One Network Services and 14 other companies were searched. Large quantities of evidence were seized, including servers, while 50 witnesses have been questioned.
OneCoin operates through hundreds of affiliated companies across four continents. They introduced payments using their new cryptocurrency, OneCoin, as a new form of global cryptocurrency. The activities of companies connected to OneCoin are currently being investigated in England, Ireland, Italy, the US, Canada, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, among other countries.
However, OneCoin executives believe these allegations are a false representation of the company and their involvement in this case. They release an official statement regarding the rumored case.
“The OneCoin company would like to officially state that the multiple recent media announcements about an exposed criminal group, engaged in money laundering using the OneCoin cryptocurrency, are untrue and are misleading the public.
The OneCoin company believes that all the above media allegations are the result of a well-organized, purposeful campaign, aiming to damage our corporate reputation and destroy our business.
Let it be clear to the public that the company has never been involved in criminal or illegal activities in any country or territory of operations, including in the Republic of Bulgaria. The company and its partners have always openly declared their willingness to cooperate with regulators, governmental organizations and media, and provide any information that would be useful in clarifying any confusion or suspicion, related to their business activities.
Therefore, we have been extremely surprised that we were never approached and asked for clarification, including by any media outlet worldwide, as expected by media striving for journalistic professionalism, fairness and objectivity. A point that we could all agree on is that media is essential to and should be the pillar of a healthy democracy.
The fact that during the past couple of days we are witnessing completely the opposite, is quite disturbing. We are led to believe that this is a deliberate attack against the OneCoin company, its partners and the OneCoin cryptocurrency, as well as its Founder, Dr Ruja Ignatova.
What we currently observe is a calculated media storm, aiming to harm the reputation of the company and its Founder, aiming to hide important characteristics of the OneCoin cryptocurrency, so that it is presented in a completely different way than it objectively should be.
To clear out all doubts about OneCoin lacking transparency, we would like to point out that this is a centralized cryptocurrency, thus providing higher liquidity and less volatility with a long-term vision and strategy for a stable development, unlike other cryptocurrencies that open and allow possible speculation from traders.
It is a well-known fact that cryptocurrencies are usually distrusted, mainly because of their anonymity of transactions and lack of user identification. This makes it possible for criminals to use cryptocurrencies for illegal activities. As far as we know, such activities are not possible with OneCoin – a cryptocurrency that has strived to implement compliance procedures aiming to identify each user each business to prevent money laundering etc.
All these procedures aim to prevent the usage of OneCoin for dubious activities. In addition, it is also important to note that the centralized model provides the highest level of prevention from possible loss due to malfunction of the user’s hardware, eventual thefts or, for example, due to the ability of ongoing data backups.
These facts were never presented by the media and the OneCoin cryptocurrency was not presented objectively as well.
Currently, because of the ongoing investigation, the OneCoin company and its partners are facing immeasurable financial loses. From the offices of our partners was, among other things, confiscated technical equipment that is necessary for their daily operations and its loss will not only lead to financial harm but could very well lead to bankruptcy.
This fact is also puzzling and makes us believe that this is not a random coincidence.
It is important to clarify that based on the feedback we received from our lawyers, there is still an ongoing investigation, which in all democratic countries means one thing – there is no conclusion made by judicial authority, based on evidence and objectively indicating a ground to make accusations either against a company or against a natural person.
During the search of our and our partnering companies’ offices on Wednesday, January 17, 2018, the employees enquired after the charges, the reason for the search and the interviews by officials. So far, such information was not provided.
In conclusion we would like to state that the media coverage of the ongoing investigation, done under doubtful circumstances, lacking a final conclusion of the competent authorities is misinforming the public regarding the facts and evidence collected, further questioning the objectivity of the circulated information in the Bulgarian press, which could be defined as a black PR with dubious goals.
In order to protect the rights of our employees, clients and partners, the OneCoin company and its partners will inform media representatives and the public of the developments, related to this case.”
OneCoin has already been under heavy scrutiny since the disappearance of their founder. Top income earners also raised suspicion last year when they gave up their position in the company to pursue other ‘business opportunities. Could these allegations be connected? As of right now we are not sure if all these unknown motives are tied together. The OneCoin company continues to break headlines with strange and now criminal business behavior. We can finally say we are glad the company is going through a proper investigation of their actions. Stay tuned as we continue to put the pieces together on this sinking ship.