‘Cryptoqueen’ associate pleads guilty to money laundering and more

‘Cryptoqueen’ associate pleads guilty to money laundering

In November, Irina Dilkinska, the former head of legal and compliance for cryptocurrency issuer OneCoin, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering for her role in a pyramid scheme that scammed investors out of $4 billion. According to U.S. prosecutors, Dilkinska wasn’t doing much compliance work for OneCoin. Instead, she allegedly laundered money for the crypto company and set up the transfer of $110 million of OneCoin proceeds to a Cayman Islands entity. She’s now facing 10 years in prison.

OneCoin was founded in 2014 in Bulgaria by “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova and Karl Sebastian Greenwood. In 2017, the U.S. government accused OneCoin executives of operating a multilevel-marketing scheme in which members received commission for recruiting others to purchase crypto packages. Over three million people invested in the packages. Ignatova remains at large and is on the FBI’s most wanted list. Greenwood was sentenced to 20 years in prison in September 2023. (See “OneCoin’s Compliance Head Pleads Guilty in $4 Billion Crypto Fraud Case,” by Mengqi Sun, The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 9, 2023.)

Shipping fraud

The U.S. Department of Justice charged a 21-year-old University of Miami student with mail fraud for running a scheme that bilked a multinational shipping, receiving and supply chain management company out of $3.5 million.

According to prosecutors, Matthew Bergwall and his co-conspirators gained unauthorized access to the employee accounts of an undisclosed shipping company and then used those accounts to enter fraudulent tracking information for merchandise transported by the shipping company. The co-conspirators were then able to get full refunds from retailers while keeping the merchandise. Bergwall and his co-conspirators allegedly offered this service for sale and called it fraudulent tracking ID or FTID. (See “Florida college student charged with orchestrating multi-million dollar mail fraud scheme,” by Skyler Shepard, CBS Austin, Nov. 11, 2023.)

Raise a glass for awareness

In honor of International Fraud Awareness Week in November, British media company Virgin Media 02 launched a beer to get people talking about fraud prevention. The limited-edition beer, Crafty Lager 7726, provides tips on how to fight fraud on its labels with reminders not to share one-time passcodes over the phone and advice for how to report spam calls and texts. Anyone who ordered the 7726 in select pubs across the U.K. got two free beers or a nonalcoholic option to share with a friend.

Ross Kemp, who starred in England’s long-running soap opera, EastEnders, and helped launch the beer with Virgin Media 02, said that the more people talk about fraud, the better they’ll become at spotting it. “Whether it’s a beer or a brew, whatever your choice of beverage, why not take the chance to have a chat over a drink and break the taboo,” he said. (See “Free beer designed to help people talk about fraud,” by Neil Shaw, Wales Online, Nov. 16, 2023.)