Finnish police have completed a preliminary investigation into OneCoin, a purported digital currency scheme commonly seen as fraud.
As reported by CCN in August, Finnish police in the region of Ostrobothnia launched an investigation into OneCoin activity in the country following a number of complaints from private individuals and tax authorities. This week, a report from regional publication Yle has confirmed that the investigation has concluded its preliminary stage with a suspected OneCoin promoter under the scanner.
Criminal police commissioner Antti Perälä from Österbotten’s police station said:
We have two suspects in an economic crime case, one of whom has been dealing with Onecoin…The damages [from OneCoin] is over half a million euros.
According to one report, as many as 20,000 Finns have invested ‘tens of millions of euros’ into the local OneCoin operation. OneCoin’s local operations in Finland are said to be managed from Bulgaria, with noteworthy sums of money paid into the firm’s Finnish bank account for ‘training packages’ compromising of “tokens”. These paid-for tokens are then redeemable for OneCoins through its website. Training packages cost anywhere from just over 100 euros to tens of thousands of euros.