The trial of a US lawyer accused of money laundering related to the OneCoin cryptocurrency “scam”, has begun in New York.
Mark Scott is accused of sending around £310m out of the US while trying to conceal the true ownership and source of the funds. Some of the money has ended up in Bank of Ireland accounts.
Prosecutors claim he also spent some of the dirty money on a yacht, three homes and a Ferrari.
The prosecutors add that while the accused had earned hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in his role as a partner at a top-ranked law firm, this was “a fraction of the money he was paid to launder OneCoin fraud scheme proceeds”.
“A recent filing by his lawyers indicate that they expect the government will prove that money that originated with OneCoin was indeed invested in funds controlled by the defendant.”
Mr Scott told the FBI that that he had asked a colleague to look into rumours that OneCoin might be a “pyramid scheme” before getting involved, and had been reassured “there was nothing illegal going on”.
“The central issue at trial will be whether or not Mr Scott knew OneCoin was operating a criminal scheme,” they add.
Scott faces one charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering and another to commit bank fraud, which he has pleaded not guilty to.
The judge in the case has said it is likely to last between two to three weeks.
