coindesk.com
A British victim of alleged cryptocurrency pyramid scheme OneCoin says she has received death threats for speaking out against the project.
As reported by the BBC on Tuesday, Glasgow resident Jen McAdams personally invested some £8,000 ($10,160) and encouraged her family and friends to invest a further £220,000 ($280,000), all of which has disappeared. Since speaking on a BBC podcast on the issue, McAdams says she has received sexual and violent threats from OneCoin supporters.
“It is horrible, the abuse is vile and the threats feel very real to me, I’m always looking over my shoulder now,” Adams told the BBC. “It is taking its toll on my health but I will not give up until me and the thousands of other OneCoin victims like me see some form of justice.”
Based in Bulgaria, the scheme was said to have raised billions of dollars before OneCoin’s founder Dr Ruja Ignatova was charged with wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering by U.S. authorities. She has since disappeared. OneCoin denies charges it’s a pyramid scheme and continues to be traded on some exchanges.
The BBC says some 70,000 U.K. citizens purchased £96 million ($122 million) worth of OneCoin alone and have yet to receive a refund.
“They invested their life savings, they remortgaged homes and they convinced their friends and family to get involved and they feel as awful as I do about it all because we were all duped,” Adams continued, adding that most of the threats have come via Facebook.
She further called on police and financial regulators to take action on the OneCoin project.
A global operation, people associated with OneCoin have been arrested in China and India to date. It’s also taken criticism in remote regions like Samoa, where the central bank recently warned its citizens to be mindful of the scheme.
British police image via Shutterstock