After several years of its presence in China, the world’s second-largest economy has finally clamped down OneCoin pyramid scheme promoters.
China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate said earlier today that about 98 promoters of OneCoin are under trial for perpetrating a cryptocurrency scam of up to $2 billion.
According to Coindesk, the prosecutor said that the scheme involved up to 2 million victims, while the amount of capital received from investors totals as much as 15 billion yuan (around $2 billion). Nearly 1.7 billion yuan ($266 million) has been recovered, the report states.
As previously reported by CoinDesk, the OneCoin scheme, which was founded by an individual called Ruja Ignatova, has been scrutinized by police in a number of countries over suspicions that it is fraudulent.
Promoters in Italy have been fined millions of euros, while authorities in India also moved to arrest suspects associated with OneCoin in April of last year and subsequently brought charges against Ignatova in July.
Most recently, the Bulgarian Special Prosecutor’s Office has joined forces with counterparts in Europe and the Americas to investigate the scheme.