SDNY COURTHOUSE, Nov 4 – After OneCoin's Konstantin Ignatov got a stay of the civil case against him, then his criminal case was kicked down the road for at least another two months.
Now the related case against accused OneCoin money launderer Mark Scott has begun and jury selected on November 4 by Judge Edgardo Ramos in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Inner City Press is live-tweeting it, November 4 thread here. Patreon here.
Before jury selection, in oral arguments Scott's lawyers asked Judge Ramos to not allow into evidence information and chats found on a Samsung Galaxy smart phone for which Mark Scott paid but was used by his wife, with a Russian keyboard. Judge Ramos declined to suppress it.
It also emerged that still-missing Ruja Ignatova rented space underneath cooperator Gilbert Armenta to listen in on him. More on that and on jury selection (which included questions on multi level marketing) is on Patreon, here.
On Monday, October 28 in a two hour pre-trial conference covered by Inner City Press, Judge Ramos said that the government can show photos of Scott with a yacht and cars that he purchased.
Late on October 31 Scott's lawyer Arlo Devlin-Brown of Covington tried again, with a request for reconsideration of a particular statement: "We write on behalf of Mark Scott, the defendant, to respectfully request that the Court reconsider its ruling from October 28, 2019, at least with respect to a single extremely problematic portion of the Government’s use of Mr. Scott’s post-arrest statement. The exchange is listed below, with the language the Government sought and obtained Court approval to remove in red and struck out. A copy of both versions is included on the CD filed directly with the Court as Exhibit A, with Exhibit A-1 the full statement and A-2 the redacted version. [Here, Inner City Press uses brackets]
8:18:14 Agent Eckel Ok. So you never heard of OneCoin besides reading about it in the press?
8:18:21 Scott No I heard about OneCoin. [That’s why, when I, at the beginning I like I said when I knew the relationship between her and OneCoin is when I basically asked for that opinion of which country or if at all any country OneCoin was illegal or, or, you know banned or whatever so then we wouldn’t do business with them.] You know there was rumors were going around, pyramid scheme and all that and we didn’t want to be involved with that.
"The central issue at trial will be whether or not Mr. Scott knew OneCoin was operating a criminal scheme. Agent Eckel asks Mr. Scott whether his knowledge of OneCoin is limited to the press. Mr. Scott replies in what is in actuality a single run-on sentence, though it is broken with periods in the Government’s draft transcript. Mr. Scott’s answer is quite clear, particularly on the audio as the words run together: he’d heard negative things about OneCoin and sought an opinion about OneCoin because he didn’t want to do business with any company operating a pyramid scheme."
But on Sunday, November 3 before the November 4 trial, there has been no reconsideration. Now the US Attorney's Office has written to in to ask Judge Ramos not to rule at this point: "The Government respectfully submits this letter in response to the defendant’s motion for reconsideration, dated October 31, 2019. (Dkt. No. 168). At this time, the Government has not made a final decision as to whether it will offer the particular portions of Scott’s post-arrest statement that are referenced in the defendant’s reconsideration motion. The Government’s decision will be based in part on what evidence is admitted during the course of the trial. Further, the Government anticipates that it will offer any relevant portions of Scott’s post-arrest statement towards the conclusion of its case-in-chief. Therefore, since the issue may ultimately be mooted, the Government respectfully requests that the Court defer ruling on the defendant’s reconsideration motion until an appropriate juncture later in the trial. The Government will update the Court and defense counsel promptly when it makes a final decision as to what portions of the defendant’s post-arrest statement it will seek to offer at trial." Inner City Press will be covering the trial. Watch this site.
On the other hand Judge Ramos will not allow in the testimony of a so-called "attempted victim" who chose not to invest in OneCoin after thirty minutes of online research, and will not allow in evidence of the gun Scott was found with when arrested, using the word (too) "thuggish" in denying it.
Judge Ramos asked if the trial will go forward or if a pre trial resolution might still be reached. The government responded that it has made no plea offer. So it's on - and Inner City Press has arranged to live tweet the proceedings, which Judge Ramos said will be 9:30 to 2:30 Monday through Friday.
The government said the trial will take two to three weeks. There will be four alternate jurors. Jury selection is set for November 4. Inner City Press will be there - watch this site. And watch this Periscope video, for now. (Sorry it's 90 degrees off - working on that). More on Patreon here.
Inner City Press intends to live-tweet as much of the trial as possible, having put in requests in advance. Watch this site.
On September 6 Inner City Press was rushing to the SDNY courthouse for a 10 am conference in the case when the subway simply stopped for 15 minute: "unruly passenger," they called it. Once in Foley Square Inner City Press ran into Ignatov's lawyer who politely answered that the short conference was already over, with the case delayed two months due to discovery and the civil case.
Here's how it was entered into the docket some hours later: "Minute Entry for proceedings held before Judge Edgardo Ramos: Status Conference as to Konstantin Ignatov held on 9/6/2019... A pretrial conference is scheduled for November 7, 2019, at 3:30 p.m. Speedy trial time is excluded from today, September 6, 2019, until November 7, 2019, in the interest of justice. (Pretrial Conference set for 11/7/2019 at 03:30 PM before Judge Edgardo Ramos) (lnl)."
With OneCoin the subject of criminal prosecution a civil case against it was ordered stayed on August 23 by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Valerie Caproni.
While Konstantin Ignatov's lawyer Jeffrey Einhorn's basis for the stay was "corresponding criminal prosecution," Judge Caproni also chided plaintiffs' lawyers at Levi & Kosinsky for failing to serve or show service on some of the defendants.
Later in the day the firm wrote that "OneCoin Ltd. and Ruja Ignatova are domiciled in Bulgaria and are believed to be evading service. Sebastian Greenwood, similarly, is domiciled in Sweden, and is believed to be evading service." They are proposing service by Facebook, citing FTC v. Pecon Software Ltd, 2013 WL 4016272, at *5 (SDNY Aug. 7, 2013). Whether Judge Caproni will accept this is not yet clear. More on Patreon here. Inner City Press will continue to follow these cases.
Back on June 28 detention was continued for OneCoin defendant Konstantin Ignatov, after he offered to pay armed guards to keep him in an apartment he would rent in Manhattan. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Edgardo Ramos questioned the source of the bail money that Ignatov was offering to put up, as well as issued raised about the propriety of "private prisons" of the type now incarcerated UN briber Ng Lap Seng, whose appeal was just denied, was allowed to live in during the pendency of his case.
Ignatov's lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman noted that Bernie Madoff got bail, and that the government could not show any contact between Ignavov and his sister Ruja, indisputedly higher up in the OneCoin scheme. But Judge Ramos, after more than an hour of argument, was not convinced. The case is US v. Scott / Ignatov, 17-cr-630 (Ramos).
More on Patreon, here.
