Two senior members of the discredited OneCoin cryptocurrency sales network are listed as shareholders of a fledgling Irish cryptocurrency.

Peter Shaw and Pehr Karlsson are shareholders in Funlz, which is seeking to develop MingoCoin, a cryptocurrency linked to a new messaging aggregator app. Funlz founder Joe Arthur said that the two men were “friends of a friend”, and he had never met them.

Arthur said the individuals had no role or connection with Funlz, aside from being minor and passive investors. He said he was unaware of their involvement in OneCoin. Shaw and Karlsson invested small sums in Funlz in 2016.

Last week a New York jury found Mark Scott, a US attorney, guilty of conspiracy to launder the proceeds of what investigators there called the OneCoin “Ponzi scheme”. It was alleged Scott earned $50m (€45m) from his efforts in routing $400m out of America. Some OneCoin proceeds passed through company accounts with Bank of Ireland in Dublin. The bank has provided information to the US authorities.

By Brian Carey, The Sunday Times, 24 November 2019

Read more at The Sunday Times

Photo: Ronny Martin Junnilainen [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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