FCA Removes Warnings About OneCoin After Pressure From Lawyers

The UK FCA removes the warning about the OneCoin scam platform after it came under heavy pressure from the project’s lawyers as we are reading more in the upcoming cryptocurrency news.

The UK financial watchdog FCA Removes the scam warning about the alleged scam crypto project OneCoin after the project hired a top law firm and reputation management company to put pressure on the FCA. Three OnCoin principles were indicted in the United States on charges that include money laundering.

The UK financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority removed the warning about OneCoin which is still considered a scam cryptocurrency, following pressure from the project’s lawyers according to a BBC podcast. The podcast, the Missin Cryptoqueen, explored the story of the Bulgarian tech entrepreneur Dr. Ruja Ignatova which launched OneCoin back in 2014 as her charisma and her speaking skills persuaded investors from 175 countries to pour $ billion into the crypto project. However, Ignatova vanished in 2017 and then it all started to crash down.

A new series of the podcast reveals that despite the criminal proceedings brought against the principal actors of the project, investors are still pouring their money in. One reason is that OneCoin was touting the removal of the FCA warning. The podcast host Jamie Bartlett and producer Georgina Catt tracked down Gary Gilford, a lawyer that was hired to set up a family office and to administer Ignatova’s fortune.

He explained how Frank Schneider, an ex-spy and OneCoin associate, engaged the “famously combative” legal firm Carter-Ruck to pressurize the FCA into removing the scam warning that was published on the site. Schneider engaged in a well-known reputation damage limitation company Chelgate which was lobbying on behalf of famous clients such as Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat when he was attacked for his association with the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Former Chelgate employee explained that the law firm worked together with Carter-Ruck to put pressure on the FCA into weakening their stance on OneCoin. He added that this was a PR goal a while ago just to establish that the project was legitimate. Bartlett said that during the investigation, people from all across the world told him that the removal of the warning will give them more confidence to invest in the project which garnered millions. The FCA however refused any correspondence from Carter-Ruck and Chelgate citing confidentiality.