OneCoin defendants in Argentina have put up a strawman defense in a bid to avoid conviction.
The scammers argue that because they recruited four police officers into OneCoin, that somehow absolves them of legal liability.
As per a letter sent to the court by defense counsel, arrested suspects in the case recruited four police officers into OneCoin.
Three invested and promoted the Ponzi scheme as a “safe investment”.
One of the recruited officers appears to be placed relatively high up in Argentinian promotion of OneCoin.
The officer came into contact with OneCoin after he was hired as Konstantin Ignatov’s personal body guard, during a mid 2018 visit to Argentina.
He continued to provide security services for local OneCoin scammers, who held weekly events at a hotel.
Eventually the officer became curious, was recruited and invested $25,000.
He would go on to recruit his father and “a significant number of close contacts and friends” into OneCoin.
Later, again due to his profession, the officer was roped into OneCoin’s Argentinian money laundering operations.
Due to his security training, he made million dollar transfers and deposits of money in Onelife accounts in Argentina – under the legal designation ODT Argentina – in banks in Córdoba and Buenos Aires.
Eventually the banks caught on and blacklisted the officer.
The defense alleges one of the lead investigating officers is “covering up (for) his companions”.
The defense being put forth is that the officers lost money, and the case against the scammers is a retaliatory attempt to recoup losses.
The bodyguard officer referenced above is one of two complainants that initiated the Argentinian OneCoin criminal investigation.
The Complainant’s attorney has pushed back on calls from the defense to investigate and charge the police officers involved. He claims the police’s investigation into the matter was “impeccable”.
Prosecutors claim the defense are trying to “muddy the field”.
Personally I think there’s two points to be made.
The first is if the fourth referenced police officer is in fact a net-winner of similar magnitude to those arrested, then he too should be investigated and charged.
As with those arrested, this should be determined by the officer’s alleged losses subtracted from referral commissions earned.
Ditto the other three police officers.
The second is what police officers did or didn’t do is not a valid defense in the current case.
The fourteen arrested OneCoin net-winners are at the top of the Argentinian OneCoin promotional chain, placed directly below fugitive Jose Gordo.
What police officers did or didn’t do doesn’t change that, or the charges brought against them.