Seychelles Police financial crime investigation unit verifying documents received in $10 billion OneCoin case

General |Author: Salifa Karapetyan Edited by: Betymie Bonnelame | August 30, 2021, Monday @ 10:50| 48882 views

Potter outlined that an email was sent to the Attorney General's office from a lawyer in the UK, and the lawyer was referred to the Unit. (Seychelles Police Force) 

(Seychelles News Agency) - The Financial Crime Investigation Unit of the Seychelles Police says it has received documents asking for an investigation in multiple transactions involving the transfer of 230,000 Bitcoins.

The transaction also included cash and property worth over $10 billion in what's become known as the OneCoin pyramid scheme.

According to The BitCoin News, "The request for an investigation is the result of claims filed in London, Dublin, and Brussels against the OneCoin organisation by victims after up to $500 million of OneCoin loot was recently discovered in Dubai bank accounts."

The head of legal affairs at the Financial Crime Investigation Unit, Tania Potter, told SNA on Friday “that the unit has received quite a number of documents, as part of the complaint, some of which need to undergo a verification process to identify any links to the Seychelles and upon completion, a decision on the next step will be taken.”

Potter outlined that an email was sent to the Attorney General's office from a lawyer in the UK, and the lawyer was referred to the Unit.

"On August 18, the matter was brought to my attention and the officer who received the complaint was instructed to acknowledge and inform the complainant that the documents will be verified and any outcome will be communicated in due course," said Potter.

According to The Bitcoin News, the lawyer lodging the criminal complaint, Jonathan Levy, has offered to assist the Unit in the investigation.

The article continued by saying that Levy also suggests that it is in the Seychelles' best interest to quickly open an investigation.

"The misuse of the Seychelles jurisdiction and involvement of public officials to commit the crypto crime of the century calls into question the use of the Seychelles by other crypto ventures including the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, which makes extensive use of the Seychelles as a corporate headquarters. If Seychelles lacks the ability to regulate crypto asset transactions worth billions, then there are serious anti money laundering issues raised about cryptocurrency companies that choose to base their operations there," continued Levy.

He added that "in any event, property has been transferred worth many billions and no stamp duty paid based solely upon the authority conferred by the Seychelles apostilled documents."

Potter told SNA that the Unit receives quite a number of similar cases like this but not from private parties.

"We usually get them through Interpol or through police-to-police communications and assist as much as we can. It isn't every time that we can do something definite as in most cases. We see that the people who have been defrauded have invested on a platform or with an International Business Company. IBC has a registered agent in Seychelles however transactions do not happen here so it is difficult for us to go after the person who has facilitated or committed the crime," she said. 


Tags: Financial Crime Investigation Unit

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