A third Samoan church has been implicated in promotion of the OneCoin Ponzi scheme.
Previously the Samoan Seventh Day Adventist Church and Worship Center Christian Church came under fire for funneling their congregations into OneCoin.
Both churches were also implicated in money laundering, following Samoa’s ban on OneCoin investment.
Now the Samoa Worship Center in New Zealand is also under investigation.
The Department of Internal Affairs confirmed to Radio New Zealand that it was investigating the Samoa Worship Center in South Auckland.
It said as part of this it had gathered “information on OneCoin” but that this was not the direct focus of the investigation.
The department made the same statement in relation to the Samoan Independent Seventh Day Adventist Church (SISDAC) in June.
Investigating OneCoin itself is pointless, as OneCoin has no physical operations in New Zealand.
Money laundering for OneCoin appears to have been rife within the Samoan church community in New Zealand. The problem got so bad in Samoa itself that the Prime Minister had to urge people not to invest.
Samoan authorities are also investigating SISDAC for the same alleged crimes.
Authorities have estimated Samoan OneCoin investors together lost “millons of dollars”.
I have a hunch that were they to follow the money, a large percentage of that probably wound up in some Samoan church leader’s pockets.
Whether anything officially comes of the investigations remains to be seen. Stay tuned…
Update 17th February 2021 – Charities Service’s investigation into the Samoan Independent Seventh Day Adventist Church has confirmed OneCoin related fraud.
SISDAC has consequently been struck off New Zealand’s Charities Register.