In what might be indirect confirmation Frank Schneider will be extradited to the US, the DOJ moved to unseal his indictment.
The court granted the DOJ’s request on December 5th.
Schneider (right) was indicted by a Grand Jury in New York sometime after 2019. The previously sealed indictment is not dated so I can’t pinpoint when it was filed.
Schneider was integral to OneCoin growing into a colossal $4 billion Ponzi scheme. Working as founder Ruja Ignatova right-hand man, Schneider oversaw money laundering and general intelligence.
Outside of OneCoin’s Ponzi scheme, Schneider is believed to have tipped Ignatova off to a pending FBI investigation – prompting her disappearance in late 2017.
As per Schneider’s indictment, he’s been charged with two counts of fraud; Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering.
SCHNEIDER helped to operate an international fraud scheme involving the sale of a purported cryptocurrency known as “OneCoin” – by, among other things, managing the scheme’s proceeds and evading law enforcement investigations into the scheme – as part of which false statements and misrepresentations were made td solicit individuals throughout the world.
It was further a part and an object of the conspiracy that FRANK SCHNEIDER, the defendant, and others known and unknown, would and did transport, transmit, and transfer, and attempt to transport, transmit, and transfer a monetary instrument and funds from a place in the United States to and through a place outside the United States, and to a place in the United States from and through a place outside the United States, knowing that the monetary instrument and funds involved in the transportation, transmission, and transfer represented
the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity and knowing that such transportation, transmission, and transfer was designed in
whole and in part to conceal and disguise the nature, location, source, ownership, and control of the proceeds of specified
unlawful activity, to wit, proceeds of the wire-fraud scheme.
If convicted, Schneider is facing an up to 40 year sentence. At 53, this virtually guarantees Schneider will die in prison.
The DOJ is also seeking forfeiture of any funds and/or assets Schneider directly and/or indirectly acquired through OneCoin.
Although Schneider’s extradition has yet to be confirmed by the French government, the unsealing of his indictment suggests an announcement is imminent.