NEW YORK — A company lawyer who was convicted late final yr in federal courtroom for his function within the $400 million worldwide OneCoin cryptocurrency scheme is looking for extra time to argue an attraction and an extension to his scheduled sentencing date.
Throughout a three-week trial in a New York federal courtroom in November, prosecutors mentioned Mark Scott, 51, arrange a collection of pretend funding funds within the Virgin Islands, which he used to launder a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of fraudulent proceeds.
U.S. Legal professional Geoffrey Berman mentioned in his assertion on the trial that Scott “lined his pockets with over $50 million of the cash stolen from victims of the OneCoin scheme.”
OneCoin, based in 2014 in Sofia, Bulgaria, was an enormous pyramid fraud scheme, conceived for the categorical goal of defrauding traders, Berman mentioned. The scheme generated 3.353 billion euros in income between the third quarter of 2014 and fourth quarter of 2016.
Scott was arrested in September 2018 on his technique to his house on Sundown Lane in Barnstable, one in every of three Cape Cod waterfront properties, valued at over $9 million, that had been bought by Scott’s corporations between 2016 and 2017.
Prosecutors mentioned Scott additionally had used the $50 million he was paid for laundering the cash to buy a 57-foot Sunseeker yacht, a Ferrari, a number of Porsches and a set of luxurious watches price a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars}.
Scott had most just lately lived in Coral Gables, Florida.
On the conclusion of the three-week trial, which was held in a federal courtroom in Manhattan, Scott was convicted of cash laundering and financial institution fraud. The cash laundering conviction carries a most sentence of 20 years in jail, and the financial institution fraud conviction carries a most sentence of 30 years.
In February, Scott’s legal professional, Arlo Devlin-Brown, appealed the conviction, saying there was inadequate proof. He requested that U.S. District Choose Edgardo Ramos both grant an acquittal or a brand new trial.
Late final month, the prosecution submitted its arguments towards the attraction in a 48-page doc, saying the proof introduced towards Scott through the trial was overwhelming.
Devlin-Brown had solely till Friday to refute the state’s opposition to the attraction. On Thursday, he submitted a letter to the courtroom requesting a deadline extension to Could 1.
“This extra time is important to evaluate sure monetary data related to the reply, together with account statements just lately requested and obtained from the Authorities,” Devlin-Brown wrote.
On Tuesday, Devlin-Brown submitted a letter asking to maneuver sentencing to July 13 or 14. Scott is scheduled to be sentenced on Could 26.
In that earlier letter, Devlin-Brown, who can be seeking to push again the deadline for submitting his opposition to a pre-sentencing report, cites as his causes “the continuing COVID-19 pandemic and the necessity for Mr. Scott to bear additional medical testing.” There was no additional data on what the medical testing was for.
A pre-sentencing report is a confidential report produced by the probation division, which can information a decide in sentencing.
Comply with Christine Legere on Twitter: @ChrisLegereCCT.