A verdict in a OneCoin related tax fraud case in Finland raises serious judicial priority concerns.
Earlier this week we reported on the first OneCoin tax fraud trial kicking off in Finland.
Turns out these trials are relatively quick, with sentencing issued the same day of the trial.
For failing to report around €70,000 EUR in OneCoin income on his 2015 taxable income, the first of four OneCoin scammers to face trial was given an eight month suspended sentence.
Part of that decision was the fact that tax on the scammers undeclared income had already been paid.
In handing down the sentence, the District Judge praised the scammer for keeping his earned Ponzi money in Finland, as opposed to laundering it through the Cayman Islands (oddly specific?).
In his defense, the scammer claimed he had a hard time explaining OneCoin to representatives of the tax administration.
Scammer: I turned to the tax administration twice to see how I should declare this income. But there I went on a rivet and got no help.
Judge: You were physically there?
Scammer: Yes, to the door. I said that I receive commission from an MLM company (network marketing, accounting) that is not registered in Finland and that I receive payments from both abroad and Finland.
Judge: What did you get the answer for?
Scammer: A shrug. The girls at the counter said they didn’t know how to tax this. It was hard to explain what Onecoin was but they did not know.
I don’t know much about Finland, but apparently they don’t have accountants there.
Or this OneCoin scammer was lying because he didn’t want to declare Ponzi income to authorities.
That seems to be the conclusion reached by the court;
The court did not buy the man’s statements as to why he did not declare the income.
Meanwhile nobody in Finland seems concerned that this scammer and his three accomplices, were part of a Ponzi scheme that robbed locals of over €40 million EUR.
The man on trial this past Tuesday pocketed €185,759 EUR. Not sure exactly how much the people of Finland had to lose for him to make that but it’s a lot.
The same year this scammer and his accomplices were stealing money through promotion of OneCoin, Finnish police announced they weren’t pursuing action against OneCoin.
Since the 2015 announcement there has been no renewed attempt by Finnish authorities to bring local OneCoin scammers, such as the five individuals on trial for tax fraud, to justice.