Australian horse racing company’s alleged OneCoin ties sparks probe

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The infamous OneCoin saga has dragged an Australian horse racing company into its web following allegations that the owner made off with over $160 million from the scam.

Australian racing officials have launched investigations into Phoenix Thoroughbreds following the claims, local newspaper Sydney Morning Herald reported. This was after its Dubai-based owner Amer Abdulaziz Salman was mentioned as one of the people who benefitted from the $4 billion OneCoin digital currency scam. Abdulaziz allegedly made away with $161 million.

The allegations were made by Konstantin Ignatov, one of the main orchestrators of the scam. Ignatov, who is the brother of OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova, has now turned prosecution witness and is cooperating with U.S. authorities. According to the paper, he made the revelation during the trial of Mark Scott, the lawyer who laundered most of the scam’s proceeds.

“Abdulaziz was one of the main money launderers. I learned that Abdulaziz took the money he stole and he started to buy a lot of racing horses for more than 25 million euros,” Ignatov reportedly told the New York Southern District Court.

The allegations had an immediate impact on Abdulaziz’s horse racing company with one of its horses being banned from a race in France earlier this month.

Australian racing officials have followed this up with investigations of their own. Racing Australia chair Greg Nichols revealed that his organization was working with authorities on the matter. He believes that such an allegation, if true, “could compromise public confidence in our sport.”

A spokesperson for the firm said it was happy to cooperate with investigators. However, he did not respond to questions regarding the owner’s involvement with OneCoin or the source of the company’s funding.

OneCoin was one of the largest scams in the digital currency industry with ‘Crypto Queen’ Ignatova making off with over $4 billion. Some reports have even claimed that the figure could be as high as $15 billion. Ignatova lured investors with promises of ‘the next Bitcoin’ that would change finance.