don’t know what they have or had… the work I’ve done was not based on their existing IT systems.”) 11 In case you’re curious, she wrote: “Pls make it however for 18 and make sure there are 3 bowls / plates each and two soup terrines. We will need one coffee can and two teapots… also what are these epergines? Maybe you send a catalogue of the non standard pieces?” This is proof (should any be needed) that even criminal masterminds are interested in kitchenware.
Chapter 22: Things Fall Apart 1 Gilbert’s private jet, a Gulfstream IV aircraft, flew into Shannon, Ireland, en route to Sofia on July 21, 2017 (and then back on July 28, 2017); and returned to Shannon on August 13, 2017, and back again on September 8, 2017. 2 “Ad Ernstig Mismanagement MIO” (Knipselkrant, December 2012): https://knipselkrant-curacao.com/ad-ernstig-mismanagement-mio/ 3 Pitt Arens announced the news to a group of senior OneCoin promoters at a special meeting at the Sofia office in early September, telling them that a new company called “Golden Gate Investment” would formally run OneCoin’s ICO, which would start in October with an “information phase,” followed by a brand-new token sale, to last for another year; at this point the coin would finally go public. See “OneCoin Affiliates Claim IPO Dropped” (BehindMLM, September 2017): https://bit.ly/3miNJHM. Irina Dilkinska was put in charge of running the ICO. She set up a new website (www.onecoinico.io) on September 25, 2017, incorporated a new company in Panama called AHS Latam, and used the same director—Andri Andreou—who was director of both RavenR London and RavenR Dubai. AHS Latam was the holding company that owned the ICO tokens. To make things more confusing, Ruja called the new ICO tokens OFCs, which was the same name they’d used for the IPO shares. 4 United States v. Armenta Indictment (Sealed)—Document 4 (Docket Number: 1:17-cr-00556). This was filed September 12, 2017, but was made public in April 2020. 5 United States v. Mark S. Scott, S10 17 Cr. 630 (ER). Manhattan District Attorney’s Office senior financial intelligence analyst Rosalind October says that the department received a “tip” in February 2016 about suspicious activities relating to Viola Accounts. (This was Christopher Hamilton’s company.) She adds that some months later the United States Attorney was running a separate investigation. I assume this relates to the “suspicious activity report” that the Bank of New York Mellon filed on February 9, 2017, which related to $350 million worth of suspicious banking activity. Fairly soon the two offices pooled their resources.
6 The original report of the raid here: Hawken, Abe, “Police make biggest EVER UK money seizure as they arrest man, 58, with £30MILLION of banker’s drafts in south Wales” (Mail Online, April 2016): https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3551654/Police-make-biggestUK-money-seizure-arrest-man-58-30MILLION-banker-s-drafts-southWales.html 7 United States v. Mark S. Scott, S10 17 Cr. 630 (ER). 8 Details of these suspicious payments were published as part of the “fincen files” series: https://projects.icij.org/investigations/fincenfiles/confidential-clients/#/en/ruja-ignatova/ 9 According to later court testimony, UK law enforcement notified the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office about the Armenta/Viola Assets payments in February 2016. According to Rosalind October, the senior financial intelligence analyst at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, “approximately 13 months into our investigation [March 2017] we were working parallel investigations [with the United States Attorney’s Office] and it was more useful for us to pool our resources together and be able to collaborate since we were investigating the same targets.” It’s not clear when the US District Attorney’s investigation started, but the dates suggest it was likely sparked by the Bank of New York Mellon reports, which were filed in December 2016 and February 2017. According to some reports, this joint operation was known as “Operation Satellite.” 10 In a subsequent court case in Wales, the former marine employed by Gilbert Armenta admitted trying to persuade Christopher Hamilton to return the money, but the jury ruled it didn’t constitute harassment. 11 United States v. Armenta Indictment (Sealed)—Document 4 (Docket Number: 1:17-cr-00556).
Chapter 24: Flight 1 United States v. Konstantin Ignatov, S7 17 Cr. 630 (ER), Document 91. 2 This is according to the testimony of Konstantin Ignatov given under oath at the trial of Mark Scott. Whether or not this was a transcript of the secret recordings, or a transcript of his court proceedings, is not clear. 3 Around one month before her Ryanair flight to Athens, Ruja emailed Konstantin, asking him to organize a meeting with her head of compliance, Veselina Valkova, in order to “discuss the online casinos.” 4 The date of October 2017 is specifically mentioned by Ivan Gershev, head of the Bulgarian Specialised Prosecutor’s Office (a division of the Prosecutor’s Office). Gershev became the State Prosecutor soon afterward. “Неутрализираха международна група за пране на пари чрез уанкойн” (YouTube, January 19, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ou3lKge_wY
Chapter 25: The Day After 1 RavenR had been charging a monthly fee to “One Network Services Limited” to cover the costs of the RavenR office. 2 Frank Ricketts agreed to rejoin OneCoin in a more senior role while he was in Pattaya, Thailand, in September 2017, with his OneCoin downline called “OneWorld.” (Surprisingly, Juha Parhiala even turned up briefly.)
Chapter 26: The Raid 1 Interview with former employee of OneCoin who was working there during the raid and asked to remain anonymous. 2 McGarry, Dan, “The Companies We Keep” (Daily Post, May 5, 2018): https://www.dailypost.vu/opinion/the-companies-wekeep/article_07616bfb-0705-5dbf-a89e-a75919c4c367.html
Chapter 27: Monkeys 1 RISG Limited certificate of incumbency (author’s copy). 2 It may of course have listed one of her trusted associates, lawyers or family members (I have not seen the document). 3 Ruja had set RavenR up as a family office in Dubai, to “focus on wealth accumulation and long-term capital appreciation through investments in high-quality businesses from around the globe,” with herself as sole shareholder and director. 4 RavenR Capital Limited company filings are available at Companies House: https://find-and-update.companyinformation.service.gov.uk/company/10178932
Chapter 28: Arrests 1 Young, Kristen, “Prosecutors Argue over Evidence in Barnstable Man’s OneCoin Case” (Cape Cod Times, October 2019). 2 United States v. Mark S. Scott, S10 17 Cr. 630 (ER), Document 318. 3 United States v. Mark S. Scott, S10 17 Cr. 630 (ER), Document 19, September 13, 2019.
Chapter 32: Cooperation 1 Konstantin Ignatov bail application letter, United States v. Konstantin Ignatov, S7 17 Cr. 630 (ER), Document 91, June 28, 2019.
Chapter 33: The Missing Cryptoqueen 1 “OneCoin/OneLife leader King Jayms shoots: ‘pretending I see the OneLife haters’” (YouTube, October 5, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6SuUfUiwzU
Chapter 34: The Dubai Mansion 1 “Amendment to the Memorandum & Articles of OneCoin Limited.” Dated February 28, 2017, stamped March 1, 2017. This case is also explained in the transcript of case number 724 (of 2020) at the Dubai Commercial Court. The court filings explicitly mention that Ruja received 230,000 bitcoin from al Qassimi as part of the Sale Agreement. 2 At the time of writing, the most recent hearing took place on May 26, 2021. Ruja Ignatova was plaintiff, and al Qassimi the respondent. Lawyers apparently acting for Ruja argued that the sale contract of February 28, 2017 (in which al Qassimi became sole shareholder of OneCoin Limited) should be annulled. At the time of writing the three checks totalling AED 210 million Ruja handed over as part of the Sale Agreement had still not been cashed: and whoever the court ultimately determines is the rightful owner of OneCoin Limited may be able to access those funds. It is not clear whether Ruja herself is personally involved in this case. Afterword: Trials 1 Details about the case are available from Court Listener: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/7829201/434/united-states-vscott/ 2 Hennebert, Jean-Michel, “Frank Schneider pas encore prêt à être extradé” (Luxembourg Times, September 23, 2021): https://www.wort.lu/fr/granderegion/frank-schneider-pas-encore-pret-aetre-extrade-614c5027de135b9236015c24; Kaiser, Guy, “Een Dag aus dem Liewen vum Frank Schneider” (GKOnline, October 4, 2021): https://guykaiser.lu/een-dag-aus-dem-liewen-vum-frank-schneider-2/