Cryptocurrency Firm OneCoin Sued Over Multibillion-Dollar Fraud
(Bloomberg) -- The company that allegedly ran a multibillion-dollar international pyramid scheme based on the cryptocurrency OneCoin was sued by an investor who's seeking to represent others who claim they were defrauded.
Christine Grablis says in the complaint that she lost about $130,000 that she invested in OneCoin. In addition to asking her suit be certified as a class action, Grablis is also seeking unspecified damages.
Konstantin Ignatov was charged in New York in March with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the scheme. Ignatov's sister Ruja, the founder and original leader of OneCoin, was charged with wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering. She hasn't been arrested. They were named as defendants along with OneCoin Ltd. and two other men who were allegedly involved with the scheme.
OneCoin generated 3.4 billion euros ($3.8 billion) in revenue from the fourth quarter of 2014 to the third quarter of 2016, prosecutors said. The alleged value of OneCoin rose from 50 euro cents to 29.95 euros in January and the company claimed to have more than 3 million members worldwide, prosecutors said. But OneCoin had no real value and couldn't be used to buy anything, according to the U.S.
The case is Grablis v. OneCoin Ltd., 19-cv-04074, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Van Voris in federal court in Manhattan at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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