In September 2016 the UK’s Monetary Conduct Authority revealed OneCoin was underneath investigation.
The investigation was headed up by Metropolis of London police.
Ten months after the FCA’s OneCoin warning was printed, it disappeared from the regulator’s web site.
So far there has by no means been a proof as to why.
In episode 9 of the BBC’s The Lacking Cryptoqueen podcast, Jamie Bartlett reveals OneCoin had the warning eliminated by threatening the FCA with authorized motion.
As revealed in The Lacking Cryptoqueen by Gary Gilford, a lawyer who labored for Ignatova,
[22:28] On the time, after I suppose Carter-Ruck and Chelgate had been concerned, the Monetary Conduct Authority put out a warning on their web site, about anybody doing enterprise with OneCoin and OneLife.
So Carter-Ruck and Chelgate had been writing to the Monetary Conduct Authority.
No matter they did, was convincing sufficient for the FCA to take the (OneCoin) discover down.
Carter-Ruck are a well known London based mostly regulation agency. Chelgate are a PR and disaster administration agency, additionally based mostly in London.
In an effort to resolve communication between between Carter-Ruck, Chelgate and the FCA, The Lacking Cryptoqueen interviews Simon Harris, a former Chelgate worker.
Harris claims Chelgate maintained a level of separation from OneCoin, by dealing on with Frank Schneider.
Schneider, a former Luxembourg spy, labored intently with Ignatova on the extra secretive features of OneCoin’s day after day operations.
OneCoin was purportedly paying Chelgate over £40,000 GBP a month as a retainer.
As recounted by Harris;
[24:42] Within the weeks previous to my arrival (at Chelgate) on August 2017, there was a warning on the … FCA’s web site.
And Chelgate labored with Carter-Ruck to pressurize (the FCA), to weaken their public stance on OneCoin.
Harris claims Ignatova and Schneider had been “completely delighted” on the FCA backing down.
OneCoin went on to make use of the FCA’s impotence as a advertising level, to additional the fictional narrative that OneCoin was reputable.
The Lacking Cryptoqueen quotes Ken Labine, a Canadian based mostly OneCoin promoter, boasting concerning the FCA’s resolution to again down.
[26:34] In the event that they (the FCA) nonetheless thought we had been a fraudulent firm, OneCoin, then guess what; that warning’s not eliminated. Sport over.
In response to OneCoin and its promoters pushing the narrative that they’d obtained regulatory approval within the UK, the FCA and Metropolis of London police did nothing.
So far the FCA has failed to clarify how stress from a regulation agency and PR company was sufficient to get it to take away a warning, pertaining to fairly presumably one of many largest Ponzi schemes in historical past.
In a current pre-trial convention for Sebastian Greenwood, OneCoin’s indicted second in command, a protection lawyer claimed OneCoin was a fifteen billion greenback Ponzi scheme.
The Metropolis of London police investigation into OneCoin was formally dropped in September 2019.
A letter from Keiron Vaughan, of the Financial Crime Director, knowledgeable the OneCoin “investigation can be closed and no additional motion can be taken”.
Three years of investigating a multi-billion greenback Ponzi scheme had led nowhere.
Owing to the failure of UK authorities, OneCoin subsequently flourished.
Within the wake of the corporate’s collapse, UK investor losses are believed to run into the thousands and thousands.
The BBC tried to achieve entry to correspondence between the FCA, Carter-Ruck and Chelgate via a Freedom of Info request.
The FCA refused to supply something. In response to the BBC’s enquiries, the regulator said;
We will neither verify nor deny the existence of those paperwork.
We printed the patron discover in 2016 on the request of the Metropolis of London police.
The choice to take our alert down was made along side the Metropolis of London police, who had been investigating the matter.
Our alerts are primarily meant to warn customers about companies carrying on regulated actions with out the required FCA authorization.
It didn’t seem that OneCoin was carrying on any actions that required FCA authorization.
The FCA doesn’t regulate cryptocurrency belongings, and subsequently it couldn’t take this matter additional.
One thing the FCA very a lot does regulate is securities fraud, which OneCoin dedicated within the UK since its inception in 2014.
At no time throughout its operation was OneCoin registered with the FCA.
The BBC has filed an attraction over their denied Freedom of Info request.
Right here at BehindMLM we’re no stranger to the incompetence of UK authorities.
We’ll make sure you deliver up the FCA’s OneCoin debacle any time somebody asserts the UK is a strongly regulated market.