On the wire fraud and money laundering allegations, the co-founder of the fraudulent scheme is scheduled for his sentencing hearing in April 2023.

Karl Sebastian Greenwood, the co-founder of the fraudulent OneCoin cryptocurrency scheme involving billions of dollars, has pleaded guilty to multiple charges brought by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). He faces up to 60 years in prison if he is found guilty on all counts.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) made the announcement on December 16 that Greenwood had pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to charges of wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy. Each of these charges carries a potential maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and the Justice Department noted that Greenwood’s guilty plea was entered on December 16.

United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Damian Williams stated that Greenwood ran one of the largest international fraud schemes ever perpetrated and claimed that Greenwood promoted OneCoin as a competitor to Bitcoin when, in fact, the tokens had no value. .

Greenwood was one of the co-founders of OneCoin, a Bulgarian corporation that sold a cryptocurrency with the same name. Cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova was the other founder of OneCoin.

The Justice Department received emails sent between the two parties before the company was founded in 2014, and those emails allegedly show that the two referred to it as a worthless coin.

According to the Justice Department, Greenwood’s position as the fake cryptocurrency organization’s global master distributor made him rake in around $21.2 million (or €20 million) per month.

There are three million people who invested in OneCoin packages, and it is estimated that OneCoin scammed them out of a total of more than $4 billion.

As a result of Ignatova’s involvement in the scam, the Federal Bureau of Investigation added her name to the 10 Most Wanted list in June.

She is still at large and is believed to have been most recently in Athens, Greece, in October 2017.

Williams said Greenwood’s guilty plea sends a strong and obvious message that the Justice Department will pursue anyone who seeks to abuse the bitcoin ecosystem through fraudulent means, regardless of how big or clever the perpetrator may be.