May 24 Zhuzhou- According to Xinhua news, the Zhuzhou County Prosecutor’s Office prosecuted the last four suspects involved in the “Onecoin MLM Scam”, which was supervised by the Ministry of Public Security. The prosecution lasted two years and 106 people were prosecuted with about 15 billion yuan.

In March 2016, the Public Security Bureau (PSB) of Liling Zhuzhou City received a report from the public that Wang had been developing online MLM scheme using “Onecoin” since the beginning of 2015. Police found that Wang was a middle-level leader, who has developed more than 400 people as his subordinates with more than 4 million yuan involved. In July 2016, after the investigation was completed by the Ministry of Public Security, the case was handed over to Zhuzhou County Procuratorate for review and prosecution.

According to Chen Xiaoling, the prosecutor in charge of case, the “Onecoin” scheme is rigged by oversea organization to promotes so-called virtual currency in China. The MLM website and marketing model was established by foreigners Lu and the server was set in Denmark. Copenhagen to escape regulation. The organization claimed that “Onecoin” is the second generation of cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. The operation deceptively advocated that “Onecoin” has a huge potential for appreciation and tempts victims to invest huge sums of money into the websites they set up. To become a member of the “Onecoin” organization, one must pay certain “entry fee” under the recommendation of the old member to get an activation code. Members are not allowed to withdraw nor refund after registration.

The organization also encourages members to develop their own subordinates, which could contribute at least 10% of their deposit to leaders. Withdrawal could only be realized via activation code. As a result, funds continued to flow into the organization’s accounts and activation code rise

It was found out that the “Onecoin” network involved more than 20 provinces (cities), Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and overseas countries.

The Ministry of Public Security’s Economic Investigation Bureau has revealed the following numbers. The total number of “Onecoin” activation codes in the world amounts to 4.8 million, and the accounts registered under these activation codes have been funded with approximately 15.895 billion euros; among which the total number of activation codes in China is 1.42 million. Chinese victims had invested about 1.9 billion euros (about 15 billion yuan). There are 79 levels from Lu, the founder of Onecoin, to Ni (Hong Kong people, fugitive) to Wang, the suspect in the case. There are more than 140 levels to the bottom level. Through the dynamic tracking and analysis of the funds involved in the case, over 20,000 accounts are investigated with analysis of more than 20 million account data. Around 1.7 billion yuan were recovered.

On December 5, 2017, the Zhuzhou City Intermediate Court made a second-instance judgment against the first batch of 35 defendants. Duan and Li were sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for organizing and leading pyramid sales activities. The remaining 33 defendants were each granted a term of less than four years imprisonment or probation. They were fined ranging from 10,000 yuan to 5 million yuan. 1.368 billion yuan was confiscated. Prior to this, in November 2017, the second batch of 59 defendants was prosecuted and recovered illegal income exceeding RMB 300 million.