US lawyer who laundered $297million through Irish bank accounts jailed for role in ‘Crypto Queen’ scam

An American lawyer who laundered $297million through Bank of Ireland accounts as part of a $3.35 billion cryptocurrency scam has been jailed for 10 years in the US.

Mark Scott was convicted in November 2019 of laundering a total of almost $400 million in his role within One Coin pyramid scheme run by notorious ‘Cryto Queen’ Ruja Ignatova.

Authorities said he had set up a number of bogus private equity investment funds called the Fenero Funds in the British Virgin Islands in 2015 because legitimate banks were unwilling to take Ignatova’s money.

Scott then transferred money from OneCoin victims from the Fenero Funds via Ireland and the Cayman Islands.

Court documents from the US state: “Between approximately May 2016 and July 2018, the Fenero Fund Accounts funded approximately €282,000,000 ($304,000,000) in wire transfers to a series of Fenero Fund bank accounts held at the Bank of Ireland in the Republic of Ireland.

“At Ignatova’s direction, Scott subsequently transferred approximately €185,000,000 ($200,000,000) from the Bank of Ireland to the accounts of one of Ignatova’s other money launderers.

“Through the use of the Fenero Funds, and the ensuing transfers, Scott successfully cleaned the funds, removing any
connection to Ignatova or OneCoin and enabling Ignatova to move the funds where she pleased.”

Bulgarian national Ignatova, who was the subject of BBC podcast The Missing Cryptoqueen, was sast seen in Dubai. She is currently one of the FBI’s Top Ten wanted fugitives, with a $250,000 reward for information leading to her capture.

US Attorney for the Southern District of New York said: “Mark Scott, previously convicted at trial of laundering over $400 million of OneCoin proceeds for ‘Crypto Queen,’ Ruja Ignatova, used his law license as a means to participate in a massive money laundering scheme for a cryptocurrency that had no value since its inception.

“Scott, an equity partner at a prominent international law firm, had boasted of earning ‘50 by 50.’ Indeed, Scott accomplished his goal, but by fraud and deception, and will now spend a decade in prison and has been ordered to forfeit all of his illegal proceeds.”

Bank of Ireland employees were requested to testify as part of Scott’s trial, but declined. US authorities do not believe the Irish bank were aware of the nature of the scam and do not suspect them of any wrongdoing.

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