Bank of Ireland (BOI) executives have backed out of the testimony before the United States Government in the criminal proceedings regarding a $400 million worth money laundering scheme through cryptocurrency scam OneCoin.
No testimony on voluntary basis
As fintech-focused news outlet FinanceFeed reported on Oct. 11, the U.S. Government filed a Letter with the Court on Oct. 10, in which it clarified that over the past week it had tried to get voluntary witness testimony in Ireland. However, the witnesses changed their stance toward the prospect of testifying and would now testify only in response to compulsory process under the U.S.-Ireland Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT).
The four witnesses at BOI who were to join a trial in the case against the accused in custody, Mark Scott, were head of BOI’s Anti-Money Laundering team Diane Sands, BOI foreign direct investment team member Deirdre Ceannt, former executive VP and relationship director Derek Collins, and Greg Begley.
Since the case involves the Central Authority of Ireland, the Government submitted an MLAT request to the authority to convince the witnesses to testify through closed-circuit television.
Parties involved in the OneCoin crypto pyramid scheme
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Scott is accused of conspiracy to commit money laundering. From 2016 to 2018, Scott laundered almost $400 million in proceeds from OneCoin through a series of private equity funds in the British Virgin Islands with accounts at banks in the Cayman Islands, known as Fenero Funds.
Scott also had corporate bank accounts at BOI, through which he allegedly laundered over $300 million in OneCoin fraud proceeds.
In March, a U.S. District Attorney charged the founders of OneCoin, Konstantin Ignatov and his sister Ruja Ignatova with “wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering offenses,” wherein they allegedly lured investors to contribute “billions of dollars in the fraudulent cryptocurrency.”
