The clampdown on OneCoin has intensified as Germany and Hungary initiate fresh moves to bring down the investment scheme that is widely believed to be fraudulent.
The claims of OneCoin
Taking advantage of the early stages of development of digital currencies, OneCoin is widely believed to have built a very large community of followers by making bogus promises of return on investment.
With its claims of becoming the next big thing on the Internet and becoming the biggest cryptocurrency, with specific reference to conquering Bitcoin, followers of OneCoin have invested huge sums of money with the hope of making unprecedented returns in the future.
The propagators of OneCoin have been accused of violating several governmental investment and payment rules while running the scheme.
Citizen protection by government
Among several moves by different governments in protecting citizens against possible financial fraud by OneCoin includes recent reports in Germany where prosecutors from the State Criminal Police Office of North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as the city of Bielefeld, have opened new investigations against the company.
In Hungary, the government has also initiated moves to tackle the alleged scam and protect its citizens from further victimization. The Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB), the country's central bank, announced that it is part of a wide-ranging task force aimed at cracking down on "certain elements of the alleged pyramid scheme."
Media intimidation backfires
In an earlier publication on Cointelegraph, OneCoin was reported to have resolved to media intimidation as a fight-back mechanism. However, such move only seems to have had a counterproductive effect as more media personnel have teamed up to resist the attack and in the process improve on efforts of sensitizing the public and providing support to victims of the alleged scam.
The Blockchain specialist, and major target of OneCoin’s intended legal intimidation, Bjorn Bjercke tells Cointelegraph that the tempo is high at the moment towards delivering the public from the claws of OneCoin.
Bjercke says:
“A lot is happening already, especially in Europe. There already is a victims support group on WhatsApp. After Ruja Ignatova walked off-stage without applaud in Macau, the OneCoin scene has really changed. And Pierre Arens, the new CEO trying to pass off a future Blockchain system as the existing has gotten many OneCoiners to wake up to the truth.”
Bjercke tells Cointelegraph that his lawyer had earlier in the week responded to OneCoin’s lawyer, based on the initial letter threatening him to desist from activities against the scheme.
However, another conspicuous development in the OneLife community according to Bjercke is the perceived disappearance of the CEO, Pablo Munoz. Munoz was conspicuously missing at the event in Macau where he was scheduled to speak. He has since edited his Linkedin profile, removing every tie to OneCoin/OneLife.