Virallinen yrityksen tiedote 22.01.2018

OneCoin official statement regarding publications about exposed criminal group related to OneCoin cryptocurrency

January 22, 2018

The OneCoin company would like to officially state that the multiple recent media announcements about an exposed criminal group, engaged in money laundering using the OneCoin cryptocurrency, are untrue and are misleading the public.

The OneCoin company believes that all the above media allegations are the result of a well organized, purposeful campaign, aiming to damage our corporate reputation and destroy our business.

Let it be clear to the public that the company has never been involved in criminal or illegal activities in any country or territory of operations, including in the Republic of Bulgaria. The company and its partners have always openly declared their willingness to cooperate with regulators, governmental organizations and media, and provide any information that would be useful in clarifying any confusion or suspicion, related to their business activities. Therefore, we have been extremely surprised that we were never approached and asked for clarification, including by any media outlet worldwide, as expected by media striving for journalistic professionalism, fairness and objectivity. A point that we could all agree on is that media is essential to and should be the pillar of a healthy democracy.

The fact that during the past couple of days we are witnessing completely the opposite, is quite disturbing. We are led to believe that this is a deliberate attack against the OneCoin company, its partners and the OneCoin cryptocurrency, as well as its Founder, Dr Ruja Ignatova. What we currently observe is a calculated media storm, aiming to harm the reputation of the company and its Founder, aiming to hide important characteristics of the OneCoin cryptocurrency, so that it is presented in a completely different way than it objectively should be.

To clear out all doubts about OneCoin lacking transparency, we would like to point out that this is a centralized cryptocurrency, thus providing higher liquidity and less volatility with a long-term vision and strategy for a stable development, unlike other cryptocurrencies that open and allow possible speculation from traders. It is a well-known fact that cryptocurrencies are usually distrusted, mainly because of their anonymity of transactions and lack of user identification. This makes it possible for criminals to use cryptocurrencies for illegal activities. As far as we know, such activities are not possible with OneCoin – a cryptocurrency that has strived to implement compliance procedures aiming to identify each user (KYC – Know your customer), each business (KYB – Know your business), to prevent money laundering (AML – Anti Money Laundering), etc. All these procedures aim to prevent the usage of OneCoin for dubious activities. In addition, it is also important to note that the centralized model provides the highest level of prevention from possible loss due to malfunction of the user’s hardware, eventual thefts or, for example, due to the ability of ongoing data backups. These facts were never presented by the media and the OneCoin cryptocurrency was not presented objectively as well.

Currently, because of the ongoing investigation, the OneCoin company and its partners are facing immeasurable financial loses. From the offices of our partners was, among other things, confiscated technical equipment that is necessary for their daily operations and its loss will not only lead to financial harm but could very well lead to bankruptcy. This fact is also puzzling and makes us believe that this is not a random coincidence.

It is important to clarify that based on the feedback we received from our lawyers, there is still an ongoing investigation, which in all democratic countries means one thing – there is no conclusion made by judicial authority, based on evidence and objectively indicating a ground to make accusations either against a company or against a natural person. During the search of our and our partnering companies’ offices on Wednesday, January 17, 2018, the employees enquired after the charges, the reason for the search and the interviews by officials. So far such information was not provided.

In conclusion we would like to state that the media coverage of the ongoing investigation, done under doubtful circumstances, lacking a final conclusion of the competent authorities is misinforming the public regarding the facts and evidence collected, further questioning the objectivity of the circulated information in the Bulgarian press, which could be defined as a black PR with dubious goals.

In order to protect the rights of our employees, clients and partners, the OneCoin company and its partners will inform media representatives and the public of the developments, related to this case.