By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Podcast Filing
BBC - Decrypt - LightRead - Honduras - Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE, August 25 -- For money laundering for scam crypto currency OneCoin, lawyer Mark Scott was convicted by a jury after testimony by Konstantin Ignatov and others but was allowed to remain free on bail pending sentencing.
On May 27, Sebastian Greenwood had a proceeding. The idea of a guilty plea has not happened, so now discovery and another conference on September 10. Inner City Press live tweeted it, here and below.
On June 1, the US Attorney's Office has requested yet another delay, this time in Scott's co-defendant David Pike's multiply-postponed change of plea proceeding: "Re: United States v. David R. Pike, S11 17 Cr. 630 (ER) Dear Judge Ramos: The Government submits this letter on behalf of the parties to respectfully request an adjournment of the change of plea control date in this matter that is currently scheduled for June 4, 2021. The parties continue to have ongoing discussions about a pre-trial disposition, but have not yet finalized an agreement. The parties anticipate that an agreement will be reached and request an adjournment of approximately 90 days, to a date and time convenient for the Court. With the defendant’s consent, the Government also requests that discovery remained stayed until the new control date. The Government further request that time be excluded under the Speedy Trial Act until the new control date, in the interests of justice, so that the parties can continue to discuss a pre-trial disposition in this matter." What's going on here?
From May 27: in OneCoin criminal crypto fraud case, now a proceeding in US v. Karl Sebastian Greenwood before Judge Edgardo Ramos. Assistant US Attorney Nicholas Folly says, We had thought we could reach a pre-trial disposition [that is, guilty plea] but it has not happened, so we want to go forward. Greenwood's lawyer Bruce Barket: We think discovery is going to be extensive.
Judge Ramos: OK, discovery over a three month period, then we'll come back on September 10 at 3 pm.
Barket: In person? Judge Ramos: I suspect we'll be able to do it in person by then. But if you prefer virtual...
Barket: Let's say virtual. [We are omitting reason]
AUSA Folly: We move to exclude Speedy Trial Act time. Barket: We consent. Judge Ramos: We are adjourned. Podcast here.
On May 24, Mark Scott's sentencing was again pushed back, this time from June 14 to September 15: "MEMO ENDORSEMENT as to Mark S. Scott on re: Reschedule Sentencing...ENDORSEMENT..Sentencing is adjourned to September 15, 2021 at 10:00am. The revised briefing schedule is APPROVED (Sentencing set for 9/15/2021 at 10:00 AM before Judge Edgardo Ramos.) (Signed by Judge Edgardo Ramos on 5/24/21)."
On July 26, the US Attorney's Office submitted for Judge Ramos' approval a deal for Scott to sell 105 Sunset Lane in Barnstable on Cape Cod, with return 43.29% of it to Marietta Halle.
On August 24, Mark Scott's lawyers asked for yet another postponement of his sentencing, in a heavily redacted letter. The basis is a motion filed under seal, and a medical procedure "due to the COVID-19 situation in Florida."
On August 25, the US Attorney's Office opposed the request, but left the basis mysterious, writing: "The Government is in the process of investigating the allegations raised in the supplemental motion and will respond to the claims raised by the motion. Nonetheless, even the claims in the supplemental motion do not establish a basis for a new trial pursuant to Rule 33 under prevailing legal precedent."
And on August 25, Inner City Press filed a letter with Judge Ramos, cc-ing the prosecutors and Scott's counsel, formally asking that the motion be unsealed. (Now on DocumentCloud, here; podcast here). Watch this site.
Meanwhile Crypto-Queen Ruja Ignatova's marketing director Sebastian Greenwood continues to have his case postponed. A similar back-up portends for Frank Schneider, arrested on April 29 in Joudreville in the Pays-Haut Meurthe-et-Mosellan trying to get back into Luxembourg and said to be awaiting extradition.
Update: Inner City Press has put questions to the US Attorney's Office - a day later, no response.
On May 13, at the US Attorney's Office request, more delay of sentencing: "ENDORSED LETTER as to Konstantin Ignatov addressed to Judge Edgardo Ramos from AUSAs Nicholas Folly / Michael McGinnis, dated May 12, 2021 re: the Government respectfully requests that the sentencing control date be adjourned for approximately six months. ENDORSEMENT: The application is granted. The sentencing control date is adjourned to November 12, 2021." Watch this site.
Inner City Press previously exclusively reported:
Konstantin: I tried to find where OneCoin had money. I spoke with Frank Schneider.
AUSA: Who was he?
Konstantin: Ruja got her information about law enforcement investigations from him. He was a money launderer. [We'll have more on this]
On May 11, 2021, Inner City Press received a phone message and then an email, about a law suit filed about OneCoin and Ruja and Bitcoin - and now this, "shows that “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova may be under the protection of a powerful state sponsor of terror in the Middle East. The document authored by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior was delivered to the Dubai Chief of Police by special courier in 2015. The document warned that Ruja Ignatova’s OneCoin was a front for terrorism financing. The report authored by Assistant Undersecretary for Criminal Security Affairs Major General Abdul Hamid Abdul Rahim Al-Awadi stated: Ruja Ignatova entered the United Arab Emirates using a diplomatic passport through Dubai International Airport by a private plane and in possession of a large sum of money. She purchased a license for a bank license in the UAE for US $16 million Ignatova used accounts at Mashreq Bank to launder money for terrorist groups and made several bank transfers to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen, which included terrorist organizations. Kuwaiti Intelligence believed Ignatova was working for an unnamed state sponsor of terrorism. The lawsuit alleges that Ignatova received diplomatic credential from Sheikh Saoud bin Faisal Al Qassimi and purchased a bank license from him. Other document’s in plaintiff’s possession indicate Sovereign Group’s Nicholas Cully and Ignatova’s German lawyer helped Ignatova and sidekick Sebastian Greenwood open bank accounts in Dubai. Mashreq Bank soon became suspicious and reported the matter to the Dubai Central Bank which ordered a partial banking freeze on the individuals and accounts involved. Ignatova then sold or pledged her Dubai holding worth about $1 billion to the Sheikh Saoud bin Faisal Al Qassimi for 230,000 BTC worth $50 million then and now over $10 billion. Despite issuing summonses for Ignatova, Greenwood, and the others, the Dubai police and prosecutor made no arrests and quietly closed the case in June 2020 even though Greenwood was in jail in New York for money laundering" - and he's still under murky SDNY jurisdiction, watch this site.
Greenwood had a pre-trial conference on August 7, 2020. Inner City Press, as it did the Scott trial, live tweeted it here:
Judge Ramos: Please call the case.
Deputy: US v. Greenwood.
Bruce Barket for Mr. Greenwood who is also on the line.
Judge Ramos: Mr. Greenwood, you have a right to be present in court. Do you waive it?
Greenwood: I do.
Judge Ramos: Mr Folly, tell me where we are?
AUSA Folly: There has been some turn over, the defendant has retained new counsel several times. Mr. Barket has only had a couple of months of the case at this point. We have produced a sub-set of discovery to him.
AUSA Folly: We have had some discussions about a pre-trial disposition. But given the difficulties of prison visits, they have been unable to fully discuss their option. He is evaluating whether to move to trial, or move toward with pre-trial resolution.
AUSA Folly: At this stage it would make sense to hold off on setting any deadline and to come back in a month or two and revisit the status and proceed from there.
Barket for Greenwood: I agree. Our communications with our client has been woefully inadequate.
Barket: This week we got 180 minutes over two days. But usually it's just an hour every ten days. If we could visit, we would spend hours every day, I could get up to speed. A $15 billion alleged international crypto-currency, with a lot of information on the Internet
Barket: He is one of the key participants in the fraud, if it is a fraud. We need to speak with him. Video conferences take 10 days to set up. It's been this way since May.
Judge Ramos: Where is he being held?
Barket: In the MCC in Manhattan.
Judge Ramos: I appreciate the obstacles. The Bureau of Prisons efforts have maintained a level of safety. [Judge Ramos heard a case about conditions in the MCC, brought as it happened by Mark Scott's lawyer Arlo Devlin Brown]
Judge Ramos: Let's come back in October.
Deputy: October 5 at 11 am.
Judge Ramos: In the meantime, have you received all of the discovery, Mr. Barket?
Barket: I got the entire file from prior counsel and some additional discovery from the government. AUSA Folly: We haven't given all of it.
AUSA Folly: We haven't given all of the discovery due to discussions of a pre-trial disposition. We've shown him his own emails to show him his knowledge and involvement from the very beginning of this fraud scheme.
Barket: We've not gotten very far...
Judge Ramos: I would encourage the parties discuss what has not been turned over. Anything else today?
AUSA Folly: Let's exclude Speedy Trial Act time until October 5 to allow discussion of a pre-trial disposition.
Ramos: Granted, this outweighs the interest of the public and of the defendant in a Speedy Trial. We are adjourned.
Inner City Press aims to cover this - and the long delayed sentencing of Gilbert Armenta on October 21. Watch this site, and Twitter feed here.
In a parallel world on March 12 the US Attorney's Office belatedly moved to revoke Scott's bail, citing Scott's continue use of OneCoin derived funds and, explicitly, Inner City Press' "blog post" about Scott dining out in Florida while on home incarceration.
Assistant US Attorney Chris Demase said they have first read out it in the blog post and couldn't believe it - but that it was proved by GPS information from Scott's location monitoring ankle bracelet.
Mark Scott's Florida based lawyer David M. Garvin sputtered over the telephone from Florida, with Scott next to him, that the dinner had involved lawyers. He tried to explain Scott's use of OneCoin funds. But Scott was ordered to turn himself in to the US Bureau of Prisons on March 13. And on that day, Konstantin Ignatov was released. Strange symmetry.
Another of his lawyers, when Inner City Press left the courtroom, was arranging to pay for a transcript, perhaps to appeal. Inner City Press on March 13 asked the US Attorney's Office Press Office for its filings not yet in the public docket. Here is Inner City Press' Periscope video upon leaving the courthouse. The case is US v. Scott, 17-cr-630 (Ramos).
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