Filings from the New York Southern District Court (NYSD) reveal that the federal government’s prosecutors are not buying former attorney Mark Scott’s story. Scott used to work for the law firm Locke Lord but has recently been tried for allegedly helping Onecoin leaders launder $400 million in the British Virgin Islands.
Ostensibly Scott worked with Ruja Ignatova otherwise known as the crypto queen and NYSD prosecutors allege he’s helped Onecoin associates since 2016. Last December Scott extended his motion to appeal while being on house arrest and recently filed for an acquittal.
While Onecoin’s crypto queen Ruja Ignatova remains at large, U.S. resident Mark Scott is trying to get his verdict acquitted after being accused of helping Onecoin leaders, including Ignatova, launder money and commit fraud.
NYSD prosecutors Cite Strong Evidence Against Lawyer Mark Scott
NYSD prosecutors responded to Scott’s recent motion and they have asked the judge to dismiss the case due to “overwhelming” evidence against him. Scott faces 50-years in prison for the charges and he will be stripped of his attorney license as well. Federal prosecutors believe Scott knew all about the fraud. The first charge will hand down 20 years for conspiracy to commit money laundering and Scott could get up to 30 years in prison for the conspiracy to commit bank fraud. NYSD’s arguments against Scott’s acquittal indicate they are confident Scott understood the funds he managed came from the Onecoin Ponzi scheme.
U.S. resident and former Locke Lord LLP attorney Mark Scott is fighting charges against him that claim he helped Onecoin associates launder $400 million in the British Virgin Islands.
Crypto Queen Remains On the Run
Both of Ruja Ignatova’s main partners have been arrested and are facing trial. Her brother Konstantin Ignatov was recently taken into custody in Los Angeles at LAX airport and the Sweden-based Sebastian Greenwood has been arrested as well. Mark Scott, Konstantin Ignatov, Sebastian Greenwood, and many others are being charged with defrauding millions of Onecoin investors. Meanwhile, the infamous crypto queen has been on the run for well over a year and a half now and no one’s quite sure how long Ignatova can remain on the lam.
‘Panda’ Crypto Malware Group Has Nabbed $100K in Monero Since 2018
Talos said in a report on Tuesday that Panda’s employs remote access tools (RATs) and crypto-mining malwareto exploit vulnerable web applications, and manages to access networks of companies internationally. Its use of RATs puts organizations at risk of the hacking group using their networks for crypto mining purposes or theft of information, according to Talos.
A cybersecurity firm has identified a group behind a spate of cryptocurrency-mining malware attacks that have been targeting enterprises across the globe.
Said to have already scooped up almost $100,000 (at current prices) in the monero cryptocurrency via its malicious software packages, the group has been dubbed “Panda”, by the team that identified it last summer – the Cisco Talos Intelligence Group.
“This is far from the most sophisticated actor we’ve ever seen, but it still has been one of the most active attackers we’ve seen in Cisco Talos threat trap data”, the team said.
The group has proven adept at updating its tools as they are discovered, in something of an arms race with security researchers.
Talos indicates that Panda harnesses exploits previously employed by Shadow Brokers – a group notorious for publishing hacking tools stolen from the U.S. National Security Agency – and Mimikatz, open-source software that is able to steal passwords from computer memory.
Talos said it has identified “successful” and “widespread” malware campaigns associated with Panda after identifying the group in 2018. Since then Panda has upgraded its infrastructure, exploits and payloads.
The researchers said:
“We believe Panda is a legitimate threat capable of spreading cryptocurrency miners that can use up valuable computing resources and slow down networks and systems. Talos confirmed that organizations in the banking, healthcare, transportation, telecommunications, IT services industries were affected in these campaigns.”
While the group may not be the most sophisticated, alos warned that “system administrators and researchers should never underestimate the damage an actor can do with widely available tools such as Mimikatz.”
It calculated that Panda has mined around 1,215 monero (XMR) – worth $91,000 at press time – since it started operations.
