Frank Schneider is believed to have been indicted within the US on, amongst different issues, cash laundering prices.
Presently awaiting a call on his extradition to the US, Schneider additionally simply admitted to cash laundering for OneCoin.
In barely weird information out of Luxembourg, Schneider (proper) confirmed in a radio interview he’d been laundering cash for OneCoin “for 2 years”.
As reported by Jean-Claude Franck for Luxembourg’s Radio 100.7;
He advised us that he has labored for the internationally wished cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova for 2 years, and that his firm Sandstone thus made a revenue of 4 to 5 million euros.
Frank Schneider mentioned, that it couldn’t be dominated out that the judiciary would possibly qualify this as cash laundering.
In fact it was cash laundering. What else is it going to be?
Schneider is suspected of overseeing OneCoin’s cash laundering operations. Sadly until it’s made public although, we don’t know the precise prices in his US indictment.
Regardless of being in Ruja Ignatova’s inner-circle, Schneider denies figuring out OneCoin was a Ponzi scheme.
Frank Schneider says, that he by no means realised this whereas he was working for Ruja Ignatova. However now he says, that “a few years have handed and huge sums of cash have most likely disappeared”.
Frank Schneider admits: “If it truly is fraud, it should be clarified, after which it would even be a case of cash laundering and I should be held liable for what I might need finished”.
Enjoying dumb seems to be integral to Schneider’s deliberate protection.
Frank Schneider’s line of protection is that, on the time, he wasn’t conscious of any attainable illegalities. And that he has solely now realised, that his actions from 2015 to 2017 may very well be thought-about a legal offense.
Naturally this doesn’t sit with Scheider studying an FBI presentation to German authorities and tipping off Ruja Ignatova.
This has been alleged by US authorities however Schneider denies it;
Schneider denies that he or Sandstone had obtained secret details about an ongoing Europol investigation into OneCoin. He says Ruja Ignatova had handed this info on to him.
He says he might probably show this: “I by no means went to any organizations to get labeled materials, I might not have finished that”.
When pressed on his feigned ignorance, Schneider advised Radio 100.7;
There is no such thing as a level trying again and questioning what would have occurred, if he had acted otherwise.
Schneider explains, that his job was to unravel issues and assist get OneCoin heading in the right direction. However he provides, that the scheme hadn’t labored on the whole and that this had not solely been his fault.
Because of his shut proximity to Ignatova, Schneider is suspected of figuring out the place she disappeared to. He claims he hasn’t heard something since she disappeared in 2017.
He thinks it’s fairly doubtless, that Ruja Ignatova disappeared involuntarily at the moment. As a result of she had by no means talked about to him that she would go underground.
He stresses that he personally will surely not have helped “to make individuals disappear”.
When a call can be made on Schneider’s extradition is as much as French authorities.
Frank Schneider says he desires to testify about the entire OneCoin affair in court docket. However not within the US, the place the 53-year-old dangers as much as 40 years in jail, however in Luxembourg, the place he might withstand 5 years in jail.
Schneider admits that he prefers to be prosecuted in Luxembourg somewhat than within the USA. “That’s regular”, he says. A conviction within the US can be “like a dying sentence”.
Given Luxembourg has and continues to show a blind eye to OneCoin’s Ponzi scheme, I’d say Schneider spending 5 years in a Luxembourgish jail is beneficiant.