DOJ seeks $393M in forfeiture from OneCoin lawyer Mark Scott

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U.S. prosecutors are seeking $393 million in forfeiture from Mark Scott, the alleged OneCoin co-conspirator who is accused of laundering the digital currency scam’s proceeds. In a letter to the New York Southern District Court, the prosecutors sought to forfeit some of Scott’s bank accounts as well as specific properties and assets.

The U.S. Department of Justice applied for a preliminary order of forfeiture in the amount of $392.9 million as part of the sentence against the lawyer, according to reports. In its letter, the DOJ claimed that some of Scott’s bank accounts constitute property involved in the money laundering crime.

Part of the filing stated, “The Government seeks to forfeit Scott’s interest in certain bank accounts, which constitute property involved in the money laundering offense Scott was convicted of at trial, and certain specific property and assets that are traceable to such property.”

Scott was convicted of laundering over $400 million for OneCoin in November 2019 and now faces 50 years in prison for his crime. His sentencing is scheduled for October 9, 2020.

The DOJ is further seeking a post-conviction restraining order against Scott, claiming that evidence presented at trial proved he had cleaned the proceeds of the scam through bank accounts in the name of shell companies that he controlled. Scott is alleged to have moved the funds in a complex series of transactions to evade detection. Currently, the U.S. government said it has been able to recover just a small portion of the $400 million he laundered.

The $4 billion OneCoin scam has continued to unravel, with the latest to be sucked in being Dubai-based businessman Amer Abdulaziz Salman. As CoinGeek reported recently, Salman’s horse racing company is under investigations from Australian racing officials after he was alleged to have benefitted from the scam. According to Inner City Press, Salman is also under investigations in the U.K., with court filings reportedly claiming he received over $218 million from Mark Scott to launder for Ruja Ignatova, the scam’s founder.