A UK judge on Tuesday ordered the extradition of OneCoin associate Christopher Hamilton to the United States to face charges of money laundering and wire fraud stemming from the OneCoin scam.
Hamilton is accused of laundering $105 million out of $4 billion allegedly stolen from investors in the massive OneCoin scam headed by so-called “cryptocoin”, Ruja Ignatova, who has been on the run from authorities since 2017.
Meanwhile, Ignatova is accused of making false statements and representing investors, instructing victims to send wire transfers to OneCoin to buy OneCoin education packages.
The promoters behind OneCoin, launched in 2014, claimed that it was a minable cryptocurrency with a maximum supply of 120 billion coins, but in reality, OneCoin’s blockchain did not exist.
according to a report of Law360, The extradition order relates to millions of dollars paid by Gilbert Armenta, a Florida financier linked to Ignatova, in accounts controlled by Hamilton under the name of an entity called Viola Asset Management.
Hamilton’s lawyers and fellow accused OneCoin associate Robert McDonald attempted to block the extradition order, arguing that “alleged wrongdoing” took place in the UK and it is nearly impossible to know where most of the damage from the OneCoin fraud occurred.
Lawyers for the United States argued that the conduct took place in the US because the money flowed into bank accounts in the US and that the case pertained to cross-border crime. The court sided with the United States and ordered Hamilton’s extradition, saying “this issue does not serve as an effective bar for the extradition of any person”.
The court did not include McDonald in the extradition order, however, saying that extraditing her would unfairly violate his human rights to honor family life because of McDonald’s care for what the court called “his extremely ill wife.”
In June, after being included on Europol’s Most Wanted list in May, Ignatova was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list with a reward of $100,000.