Anti-fraud police boasted of seizing record £30m from scammer but told to hand ... trends now
Anti-fraud police boasted of seizing a record £30million from scammer only to hand it back.
City of London Police hailed it as the ‘biggest ever seizure’ by a UK law enforcement agency and told of taking ‘criminal proceeds out of the UK economy’.
The revelation about the return of the money came in extradition hearings for Christopher Hamilton, a 64-year-old British financier who is appealing against a UK court’s decision that he can be sent to the United States.
According to court documents, the father of three was suspected of laundering tens of millions of dollars stolen from investors in OneCoin, a cryptocurrency launched by Bulgarian businesswoman Ruja Ignatova.
According to court documents, father of three Christopher Hamilton was laundering tens of millions of dollars stolen from investors in OneCoin, a cryptocurrency launched by Bulgarian businesswoman Ruja Ignatova (pictured)
Known as the Cryptoqueen, she is on the FBI’s most-wanted list after vanishing in 2017 when her empire came crashing down. The 42-year-old is accused of cheating as many as million investors worldwide out of £3.3billion.
It is alleged that Ignatova’s lover, US businessman Gilbert Armenta, had approached Hamilton, his deputy Rob Macdonald, and his UK firm Viola Asset Management to launder the OneCoin money.
An FBI investigation allegedly revealed that ‘between 2015 and 2016 Hamilton and Macdonald conspired with others to launder tens of millions of dollars in criminal proceeds’.
Hamilton was arrested in 2016 at his £1.5million Glamorgan home by detectives who had been alerted by HSBC to suspicious transactions. The police said they had seized cheques representing approximately £30million sent by Armenta to Viola. Hamilton maintains his innocence.
Known as the Cryptoqueen, Ignatova is on the FBI’s most-wanted list after vanishing in 2017 when her empire came crashing
