Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has blocked the accounts of a OneCoin satellite firm for operating without a license.
In a statement published last week, the authority confirmed that the bank accounts of IMS International Marketing Services GmbH were to be frozen, “effectively immediately as per the law.”
IMS had engaged in money transfer operations on behalf of various OneCoin-affiliated entities with the aim of gathering and forwarding investor funds.
The company would act as an intermediary for those purchasing OneCoins with fiat currency in Germany, “forwarding it on to third parties, notably those outside Germany, on behalf of OneCoin,” the statement continued.
In accordance with German regulations, BaFin reiterated that such activities “qualify as a money transfer business” which “as a payment service falls under licensing requirements.”
IMS faced a fine of €1.5 mln if it continued doing what it had been - ignoring the ban.
Despite OneCoin’s broadly negative reputation and endless press coverage warning the public to avoid what is a suspected Ponzi scheme, the sums already handled by IMS are astonishing.
“In total IMS International Marketing Services as a result of the arrangement with OneCoin collected around €360 million between December 2015 and December 2016,” BaFin wrote.
The now-blocked accounts contain approximately €29 mln.