In a weird ruling, two OneCoin Ponzi scammers in Germany have been acquitted.
As instructed by SBS Authorized, the regulation agency representing the scammers, the case in opposition to the scammers confirmed that these recruited ‘had been or are solely within the cryptocurrency OneCoin.’
This is a vital level, as a result of it cemented OneCoin being a pyramid scheme beneath German regulation.
From their very own press-release it appears SBS Authorized argued OneCoin wasn’t a pyramid scheme. Subsequently the regulation agency sought an acquittal for his or her shoppers.
Prosecutors pushed for six to eight months jail time.
Upon consideration of filed proof, the court docket acquitted the defendants.
SBS Authorized declare a figuring out issue was their commissioned 2015 authorized opinion. We lined the leaked doc earlier this 12 months.
In a nutshell, SBS Authorized (then Schulenberg and Schenk) rubber-stamped OneCoin’s Ponzi enterprise mannequin.
Only a observe on the name-change, in response to our article Stephan Schulenberg obtained in contact to advise that Schulenberg and Schenk and SBS Authorized had been working as two totally different entities.
This regardless of SBS Authorized and Schulenberg and Schenk having the identical attorneys and working out of the identical company tackle.
SBS Authorized’s June tenth article refers back to the Schulenberg and Schenk’s authorized opinion as “ready by our regulation agency”, so it appears they’ve dropped that facade.
Getting again to the acquittal, SBS Authorized states;
The court docket additional said that the 2 accused had been additionally acquitted within the occasion that the authorized evaluation indicated that there was a pyramid scheme.
As a result of each (defendants) had learn our regulation agency’s report earlier than beginning their work for Onecoin gross sales, which resulted in a so-called inevitable mistake in accordance with. Part 17 of the Prison Code , which results in impunity.
Part 17 of the German Prison Code states:
If the perpetrator lacks the perception to do fallacious when committing the act, he acts with out guilt if he couldn’t keep away from this error.
If the perpetrator was in a position to keep away from the error, the punishment can bereduced inaccordance with Part 49 (1).
So again in 2015 Schulenberg and Schenk revealed a authorized opinion claiming OneCoin’s Ponzi scheme was reputable.
The defendants allegedly learn the report and based mostly on the illustration OneCoin was reputable, proceeded to rip-off folks via the Ponzi scheme.
5 years later the identical regulation agency, as SBS Authorized, defends the scammers on the premise they aren’t chargeable for legal conduct as a result of they relied on a report ready by themselves.
And regardless of Schulenberg and Schenk’s authorized opinion being deeply flawed, a German court docket purchased it.
I feel this is perhaps the most important /facepalm of the OneCoin saga I’ve seen but.
Different causes cited by SBS Authorized for the acquittal are
the remuneration system as an entire is designed in such a method that the progressive components vis-à-vis these of product gross sales would clearly recede.
As well as, there can be actual demand for the cryptocurrency OneCoin, which is totally unbiased of the opportunity of mutating from a buyer to a gross sales accomplice. This was additionally proven by the taking of proof.
Demand for OneCoin exterior of the Ponzi scheme? Yeah there’s none.
That is clearly demonstrable by OneCoin collapsing after ROI withdrawals had been blocked from January 2017.
As for “product gross sales” inside OneCoin, there weren’t any. Associates signed up, invested in OneCoin Ponzi factors and obtained paid to recruit others who did the identical.
That’s actually all there was to the enterprise with respect to the MLM alternative. A bunch of pseudo-compliance rubbish was added, however none of it negated or justified the Ponzi scheme.
What’s much more weird in regards to the court docket’s ruling, is German prosecutors had entry to copious quantities of proof introduced in parallel US proceedings.
Thus far there have been three OneCoin associated responsible pleas and a conviction within the US, supported by 1000’s of pages of proof.
Inside Germany itself, BaFin banned OneCoin nationally for committing securities fraud in 2017.
On the time BaFin cited OneCoin as “one of the harmful cash video games of current years”.
How did German prosecutors bungle this case up so badly?
I don’t know if there’s an appeals course of for the ruling but when so hopefully one is filed.
In the meantime SBS Authorized are celebrating their efforts in aiding OneCoin scammers evade the regulation.
Dealing with the case had been SBS Authorized attorneys Stephan R. Schulenberg and Moritz Braun.
Along with rubber-stamping the Ponzi scheme via a commissioned authorized opinion, SBS Authorized has ties to OneCoin via founder Ruja Ignatova.
Replace thirteenth October 2021 – This text initially included a hyperlink to SBS Authorized’s web site the place the agency celebrated its function “in aiding OneCoin scammers (to) evade the regulation”.
As on the time of this replace, SBS Authorized has pulled that article. As such I’ve needed to disable the beforehand accessible hyperlink.