This Monday, October 20, the oral and public trial against 13 defendants for alleged scams related to the false cryptocurrency OneCoin will begin in Córdoba, Argentina.
The process seeks to determine if the defendants were the authors of the deceptions against local savers or if they were also victims of the international network headed by the Bulgarian Ruja Ignatova, known as the “Crypto-Queen”, fugitive since 2017 and requested by United States justice.
The audience will take carried out in the 10th Crime Chamber of that Argentine city and will be presided over by judges Juan Rojas Moresi, Carlos Palacio Laje and Alfredo Villegas. The prosecution will be led by the Complex Crimes prosecutor Enrique Gavier and the deputy Fernando López Villagra. Both managed to unify the two files in process: one for illicit association and another for repeated scams.
Among the accused are Eduardo Taylor, the only one detained so far, as well as Ariel Morassut, Edgar Moreno, Mónica Blasco, Mariana and Andrés López, Manuel Peralta Guevara, Ricardo Beretta, Adolfo Amuchástegui, Daniel Cornaglia, Nancy Díaz, Aldo Leguizamón and Hernán Pizarro; who have already served several years of preventive detention until they were able to be released on bail of $250,000 each in December 2024.
According to the investigation, the defendants promoted investment in OneCoin through events in hotels, private meetings and radio programs. They used social networks and messaging applications to attract savers, promising large profits and the access to a supposed “financial revolution.” The accusation maintains that videos and speeches were presented that linked the project to non-existent technological advances.
OneCoin was launched in 2014 and became one of the largest fraudulent schemes in the world. Its creator, Ruja Ignatova, disappeared in 2017 and remains among the FBI’s ten most wanted fugitives. In June 2024, the United States raised the reward for information leading to his capture to $5 million, as reported by CriptoNoticias.
The trial in Córdoba is the first in Argentina to comprehensively address the local impact of the global OneCoin fraud.