OneCoin is supposedly a digital currency estimated to have raised over £4 billion globally in the form of investments, but US prosecutors claim that the cryptocurrency is a front for a pyramid scheme, designed just to extract money from its investors. The founder, Ruja Ignatova, has vanished after being charged with money laundering charges since.
As a once-hopeful investor herself, Jen McAdam has been working with a group of other investors who are victims of the OneCoin pyramid scheme.
About 70,000 people from the UK have bought packages from OneCoin and are now reporting that they are unable to fully cash out or trade their cryptocurrency. OneCoin denies any allegations of being a scam or pyramid scheme, and even blames the victims for their investment. The company further claims that it completes the checklist of criteria for being a cryptocurrency.
McAdam has spoken against the company and is now taking part in the BBC sound podcast called ‘Cryptoqueen,’ dedicated to investigating the mysterious disappearance and elaborate scheme of Ignatova and OneCoin. McAdam says that she has since received a lot of criticism and abuse.
She revealed that since the announcement she has received violent messages and death threats, most of which are coordinated attacks by the remaining supporters of OneCoin. She has reported the threats to police in Scotland.
McAdams herself had invested £8,000 in the OneCoin scheme, and later persuaded her family and friends to invest a total amount of £220,000 before realizing it was a pyramid scheme and that she was not going to get her money back.
The 49-year old claims that just like the other 70,000 victims in the UK have been involved in the scheme and no notable action has taken place since, calling out the UK policing and financial regulation authorities.
Crypto Scam that Defrauded Investors from 175 Countries
The Cryptoqueen podcast claims OneCoin gathered over £4 billion from people around the world, across 175 countries. The leader of OneCoin, Ignatova, disappeared in 2017 and during March of this year, US prosecutors charged the Oxford-educated businesswomen with money laundering in absentia. The Department of Justice refers to OneCoin as pyramid scheme and are actively investigating the issue.
Disrict Attoryney Cyrus Vance from New York County has referred to OneCoin as “an old-school pyramid scheme on a new-school platform.”
OneCoin continues to reject any allegations of being a scam, restating that the company is verifiable and fulfills the criteria of being cryptocurrency, further claiming that the BBC series does not present any truthful information.
