Prosecutors charge another person for their role in the OneCoin scheme

Another person involved in OneCoin has been arrested, according to court documents filed in the Southern District of New York.

Prosecutors say William Morro was involved in a scheme to hide the source of funds connected to OneCoin by lying to banks about the origin of those funds. Morro participated $35 million in funds connected to OneCoin to be transferred to an account in Hong Kong and also transferred about $6 million to an account in the U.S., prosecutors said. Morro was arrested on Tuesday.

"In or about 2016, William Morro, the defendant received funds connected to 'OneCoin' into bank accounts that he controlled in China and caused a portion of those proceeds to be transferred to other accounts, including to a bank account held at a bank in the United States, and did not disclose, among other things that the funds were derived from 'One Coin,'" U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in the filing on Tuesday.

Prosecutors ultimately charged Morro with conspiracy to commit bank fraud. A waiver of indictment was filed, where Morro agreed to waive "prosecution by indictment and consents that the proceeding by indictment and consents that the proceeding may be by information instead of by indictment."

OneCoin's past

OneCoin was founded in 2014 by Karl Sebastian Greenwood and so-called Crypto Queen-turned-fugitive Ruja Ignatova. Greenwood was arrested in Thailand in 2018, charged with fraud and money laundering and extradited to the U.S. This past year, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined $300 million.

Ignatova faces similar charges, but has not been seen since 2017 when she took a flight to Greece. She was added to the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted List in June 2022.

OneCoin marketed its cryptocurrency through a global multi-level marketing network, which prosecutors said helped contribute to its growth. Prosecutors say Greenwood and Ignatova wanted investors to believe OneCoin was comparable to bitcoin and often drew comparisons between the two.

More recently Bulgarian national Irina Dilkinskawas, formerly the project's head of legal and compliance, was sentenced to four years for her role in the project.