Thread by @innercitypress

OK - #OneCoin trial coming to a close, literally: today closing arguments, US then Mark Scott's lawyer, both sure to zero in on Konstantin Ignatov's cooperating testimony, Inner City Press stories: innercitypress.com/sdny38onecoini… & patreon.com/posts/31692293 Thread below

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 But before summations, Scott's lawyer Arlo Devlin-Brown is putting into evidence a Locke Lord report on crypto currency by Robert Courtniedge and Charlie Baron Smith, & an email from Scott to David Pike (arrested, arraigned, and bailed to Coral Gables, Florida)

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 In the past minute: Defense rested its case; Judge Ramos told juror to take a break while the court is set up for closing arguments. Then Judge Ramos asked Mark Scott to confirm that he is choosing not to testify. He confirmed it. Prosecution closing in 5 min

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 It's AUSA Nicholas Folly doing the US closing.

"What Mark Scott was arrested, he lied. When he was asked if Ruja and OneCoin had anything to do with his investment funds, he said No. He lied through his teeth because he knew OneCoin was a fraud."

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: ... "and the defendant had laundered $400 million through his fake investment funds. He told lie after lie to hide his connections to OneCoin and Ruja. The lies to banks, the lies about fake investors - because he knew it was from criminal activity."

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA Folly: "OneCoin was a massive fraud scheme."

[Some might question this use of the past tense.]

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: "You saw emails from Ruja and Sebastian Greenwood in 2014. The concept was simple: tell everyone OneCoin is the next BitCoin. Get people to invest then take the money and run. That's exactly what they did. Millions of victims like William Horn & Linda Cohen

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: OneCoin's entire business was fraud. And business was very good at OneCoin. But it had a problem: banks caught on very quickly and did not want to be involved. You heard about this from Ruja's brother Konstantin.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: "Konstantin told you that if banks found out that OneCoin was involved, they would freeze the funds...

So Ruja used her boyfriend Gilbert Armenta. But it was not enough. So in 2015 she had her eye on a solution, a helper: Mark Scott."

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: "Gilbert was arrested by the FBI and began making secret recording of Ruja. He introduced her to Mark Scott and said, 'Treat her like family.'" Scott knew how to do this, to make it look like it was real, like real investments.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: So Scott got busy. Trips to the Cayman Islands, the BVI, Ireland, Bulgaria. Scott was very busy. It was all OneCoin's money. It was all Ruja's money. Ruja needed that clean money.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: You heard about it from Konstantin: Ruja has a penthouse in London with an indoor pool. She had a huge property in Dubai. Ruja needed that fraud money.

By the end, Mark Scott got $50 million just for laundering Ruja's money.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: The defense disputes if Mark Scott knew that Ruja's money came from crime. The answer is yes: It is as obvious as the OneCoin fraud scheme. Fake loans. Emails to Mark Scott that OneCoin was under investigation by the London City of Police [sic]

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: Remember the mission statement that Mark Scott sent to banks? It was copy and pasted from a website online. Scott hopped on Google. This was all just a facade.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: Let's look at this. Ruja told Scott: Think about the structure, need to be able to bank and get accounts.

AUSA: Ruja didn't care about investments, just getting accounts. Because Ruja's money was dirty and she needed to clean it.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: Ruja said to Scott, If I wanted to put $50 million Euros on your accounts, how much would you charge me?

AUSA: Scott told Ruja, I am setting up your transfers as investments. The defense has tried to argue that Scott was not trying to hide anything.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: But of course Scott was trying to hide. He told Ruja the name could be anything as long as not connected to OneCoin. "The link to O.C. will kill us," he wrote.

"OneCoin is a fraud scheme and Ruja is the leader of that OneCoin. And Scott knows that."

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: IMS, the company which transferred over $100 million to Scott's investment funds. Then there's Irina Dilkinska. She had everything but a money laundering business card.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: Scott knew Ruja was a fraudster and needed to use his fake investment funds to clean her money.

Ruja told Mark: do not put these type of things in emails. Do it on the crypto-phones.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: Scott literally took trips to Sophia, Bulgaria and walked right into OneCoin to meet Ruja. He went to that over the top birthday party, you saw the footage from that, right here at this trial. Scott knew all of Ruja's money was from OneCoin.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: So where are Scott's brilliant investment ideas he is getting paid $50 million to come up with? There's nothing about that in these emails. Investments are not what Mark Scott is getting paid for. He is laundering Ruja's money.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: So Mark Scott did things like fake loans. He says, "The Boss made a 5 million Euro payment. We need to paper this deal for the administrators." So he comes up with a fake loan agreement. This is Money Laundering 101.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: Mark Scott wrote, "All loans should be considered available cash, for obvious reasons."

[Note: Inner City Press has repeatedly asked US Attorney's Office to make these exhibits available as was the case in the #Honduras and #6ix9ine trials; still waiting.]

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: That's Amer [sp] Abdulaziz to whom Scott is sending millions of Euros... Scott created a massive fake investment fund.

AUSA: Ignatov was warned that Mark Scott might be a highly placed informant. Why, if Mark Scott was not on the inside of the scheme?

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: And Irina Dilkinska's response was, If Mark Scott were an informant, "I'd already be in much deeper shit."

AUSA: Scott had something to hide. He said Skype was unsafe.

[Inner City Press: Not sure this is US Attorney's strongest argument.]

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: Look who had the crypto-phones: Mark Scott. Ruja. Sebastian Greenwood. Gilbert Armenta. The key people had them.

AUSA: Scott received more than $50 million for cleaning Ruja's money. He was not some superstar investor like Warren Buffet.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: Ruja was not into charity. When she brought her brother Konstantin in, she barely gave him a raise. She only paid Mark Scott $50 million because he was taking a big risk: laundering $400 million for her.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: Scott texted, I'm going for $50 million by age 50: 50 by 50.
And he got it, massive fraud scheme. You saw what motivated him. Waterfront Cape Cod houses, a Ferrari, watches, a yacht. This is what Scott desperately wanted.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: When APEX asked Scott for more information, things started to get bad for him. He forwarded APEX an email from Irina Dilkinska - who on Google is connected to OneCoin. So APEX started to ask Scott hard questions.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: But Scott is arrogant. He thinks he is smarter than APEX. He back-dates agreements. He says, "Use different pens." With his buddy Pike, he says, send them to me and make them look scanned.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: Next, Scott forges IMS contracts. He changes 1% to 22%. You can see it, right here in the meta-data.

[Inner City Press asked again yesterday, but US Attorney's Office has still not made these exhibits available, despite promoting these closing arguments]

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: Scott gets it. There's no way Irina Dilkinska could justify having all that money. It's all Ruja's.

AUSA: You heard defense counsel talk about a deal involving Neil Bush. But remember the backdated deals, the forged contracts - that was the Neil Bush deal

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: I want to focus on Scott's lies in his post arrest interview that you saw yesterday.

[Video still not made available.]

AUSA: First, he pretended he forgot the last name of Irina Dilkinska...

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: When he was asked directly, are Fenero Funds connected to Ruja and OneCoin, look at what he said: No.
Wow.
But the Fenero Funds were entirely OneCoin and Ruja. Scott knew that. These lies tell you everything you need to know about Mark Scott.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: He lies because it would reveal that he was involved in money laundering. He tries to hide it and cover it up.
Now I want to talk very briefly about the bank fraud conspiracy charge. For Scott & Ruja and their co-conspirators to move money, they had to lie

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: It wasn't just Germany and Bulgaria and Dubai and Singapore. It was right here in the United States. Lies to banks to get the banks to move the money. He claimed the real investor was Irina Dilkinska...

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: Some of those lies were to federally insured banks. Consider the money from Gilbert Armenta. From RavenR accounts, to Zala Group. Look at the wire instructions: they said things like asset management. What we know is that these were lies.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: "Because banks obviously do not want to have anything to do with moving money for fraud scheme."

[Inner City Press: Even this same US Attorney's Office says different, in other cases.]

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA: It's simple. Mark Scott was paid $50 million to launder Ruja's dirty money. And he had to lie to banks to do it. And some of these banks were right here in the USA. He thought he could trick everyone. But now, it's time for Mark Scott to be held accountable.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 AUSA Folly: Ladies and gentlemen, don't let him trick you. Mark Scott is guilty.
Judge Ramos: Let's take a break. Then the defense summation.

Thread will continue.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 Scott's lawyer Arlo Devlin-Brown ("Arlo") had started his closing argument pointing out that of the government's 15 witness, only 2 met Mark Scott.
Arlo: 2 witnesses might be enough in an assault trial. But this trial is about what was going on in Mr. Scott's mind

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 Arlo: The government had witnesses read documents they weren't on. And a lot of these emails were from people like Ruja Ignatova. But I can't cross examine emails. I'd love to ask Irina Dilkinska some questions. I don't know where to find her.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 Arlo: Something about this case never made sense to me. The money was coming in front banks. Like Deutsche Bank.

[Inner City Press: very reputable bank - not.]

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 Arlo (to the jury) - you are the most important people here. We are all repeat players here. You are not....
Let's start with the bank fraud charge. It requires that the object of the fraud be an FDIC insured bank. Not what he said to Bank of Ireland...

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 Arlo: The Bank of Ireland is not FDIC insured. So get that charge out of the way, early in your deliberations [!]

Arlo: There was Morgan Stanley, there was Sabadell Bank [that is, IBERIABANK.] But that was Gilbert Armenta. There is no proof that Mark Scott knew.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 Arlo: But Gilbert Armenta is not here. So we don't know what he told Mark Scott. But the evidence shows that Gilbert Armenta lied to Mark Scott. Here's a government exhibit, about Sabadell [IBERIABANK]. "It came in through an employee of Sabadell, now IberiaBank."

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 Arlo: But here's a document obtained from a search warrant, which will be available to you during deliberations.

[But not to the Press and public? Request is pending.]

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 Arlo: Mr Kishore, who testified from Sabadell / Iberiabank, he said the letter didn't look like one from his bank, and that Iberia which now owns Sabadell couldn't find the letter.

[Inner City Press hopes to have more on this.
cc @FederalReserve]

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Arlo: Mr Scott is not on any communications with Morgan Stanley Bank... "He said he was investing in windmills, the government is tilting at windmills."

[Rimshot]

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Arlo: Mark Scott has an account at DMS in the Cayman Islands - he didn't have an account at Bank of New York Mellon.

But Mark Scott did receive money, and assurances, from Deutsche Bank. And from HSBC!

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Arlo: Mark Scott was not part of the OneCoin fraud. Konstantin Ignatov pled guilty to that. Mr Scott wasn't charged with that. He had nothing to do with marketing OneCoin in the US or in any location.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Arlo: If you're scamming the people, it's not a giant step to say you know the money is a fraud. That means the government has to overcome something: they have to show that he knew. This is reasonable doubt.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Arlo: There was testimony about the blockchain. If a crypto currency doesn't have a blockchain, it's a fake. But Ruja kept the scam secret, even from her own brother.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Arlo: They had a fake thing for people to look at. When Mr Ignatov was cross examined, he said he believed in to blockchain until pretty, pretty late. After a raid he had doubts. It was not until May 2018 that he learned it was fake.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Arlo: Only Ruja and the I.T. department knew. So why would Ruja tell Mark Scott it was a scam?

Arlo: OneCoin is a scam, we're all in agreement on that.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Arlo: It would be one thing if Konstantin had said that Irina Dilkinska was trustworthy. But he said she is not to be believed. So why should you?

Arlo: It's never good to have a chart called "Fake Coins."

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Arlo: They you have the crypto-phones. I forgot who said it, that they'd heard of crypto-phones only on the show "The Good Wife." These phones didn't work.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Now Arlo Devlin-Brown tells the jury that Mark Scott's mug shot, which Inner City Press published this morning, is not fair, is not like the photos on Locke Lord's website. Instead, "if you saw this on the TV news you'd locked your doors and hide your kids."

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Arlo: When Ms October testified, I saw a lot of activity on those charts. The government has the burden. Deutsche Bank Cayman had relationships with Mr. Scott, I didn't hear any problem with that. Bank of Ireland didn't even come and testify.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Arlo: "There's been no evidence that Neil Bush was not, in fact, traveling to China."
"And to top it all off, it was going to be paid in OneCoins. Mr. Scott wasn't hiding it."

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Arlo calls Mark Scott's post-arrest statement "not his finest hour;" asks where is the evidence Mark Scott didn't get his clients' permission to change 1% into 22%?

Arlo: Ruja Ignatov wanted to park 2.5 million in a Zimbabwe bank... Scott ultimately rejects it

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Arlo: There was this email that Mister Konstantin testified about, about RavenR, these people Mister Konstantin said were always very professional.. By now, Mark Scott is out of it, all of the money except the legal retainer. He is a stubborn man. He left.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Arlo: There's a Proverb, "The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion." Mark Scott is a like a lion. And where is Ruja Ignatova?

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Arlo's final slide is Ruja's email to Sebastian Greenwood, "exit strategy."
Arlo says, "Here's lookin' at you, Ruja."

Arlo: "Lion or goat, you have to decided what kind of animal Mr. Scott is, and what kind of animal he is going to be." His closing is over.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve COURTROOM CRESCENDO I: In #OneCoin Trial Closings, US Quotes Ruja Ignatova On Parking Money and Disappearing, As Mark Scott's Lawyer Argues That "Even" Deutsche Bank Was Fooled, Quotes Proverbs @SDNYLIVE
innercitypress.com/sdny39onecoini…

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Judge Ramos, reading to the jurors his jury charge, is telling them that cooperators' testimony can properly be considered; if not, some crimes could not be prosecuted.

"It is of no concern of yours why the government made an agreement with a particular witness."

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Judge Ramos: Informants or confidential sources are often used by the government. It is lawful. Your personal view of it must not impact your decision on this case.

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Judge Ramos has finished his jury instruction, is letting the alternate jurors go with instructions that until there is a verdict they are not to read anything about it.
He comes back: Page 21, he did not read "what made what was said misleading."

@MatthewLeeICP @sdnylive @Svrakata @widell_ari @JamieJBartlett @ezCoinAccess @saavedra2013 @federalreserve Judge Ramos tells the jurors to come in tomorrow at 9:30 am & start deliberating, to send out notes if and when they have requests for exhibits. Judge Ramos tells lawyers to stay "within 5 minutes." Inner City Press will remain on the case patreon.com/posts/31718716