Onecoin Sends Lawsuit Threats to Media and Whistleblowers

OneCoin has been quite a controversial topic in the cryptocurrency community. After a recent arrest in Mumbai, which resulted in 18 OneCoin representatives arrested and $3 million seized, it seems that the scheme is starting to issue legal threats to publications and writers. One such person to receive a legal threat was Bjorn Bjercke, a blokchain professional from Norway. The cease and desist letter threatened to sue Bjercke unless he withdrew his statements, youtube videos, and articles.

According to Bjorn Bjercke, OneCoin Recruitment company approached him on 29th of September 2016. He told behindmlm that Asenshia approached him regarding a C level position:

We are currently working on a C Level search that may interest you. Can you suggest when you may be free for a call and the best number to reach you on?

The annual salary for such a position was $2.5 million. However, once Bjercke realized that he would be working with OneCoin he turned down the position. In the process of listening to all the details about the job, the blockchain professional realized that OneCoin was using a simple SQL database to “store” their tokens. It didn’t take long for him to release that information to the public.

According the behindmlm, there are talks that OneCoin did hire an actual blockchain developer to set up a ledger for the company. However, it still doesn’t change the fact that there wasn’t a blockchain to begin with.

Bjercke wasn’t the only one to receive a threatening letter, a Bitcoin journalist from Germany writing for Coinspondent also received a legal threat from OneCoin. According to Friedemann Brenneis – the journalist in question – OneCoin lawyers were irritated by an article he published. In the article, Brenneis pointed out two publications by BaFin (the German banking watchdog) which criticized OneCoin.

After the wave of legal threats were sent, most of the users on the receiving end decided to retract their statements and remove the content. However, a few decided to stand up to OneCoin and fight them in court if it gets to that point. It is still unclear whether or not any of the journalists will actually be sued as the only received threats of litigation so far.

Unfortunately, since OneCoin is quite a large organization they have a large legal fund. While OneCoin may not be able to win the libel and defamation cases, they can use stall tactics to bleed the defendant’s dry. That is a common strategy used by entities with large sums of cash to make others with less resources comply. Only time will tell whether OneCoin’s threats are legitimate or not, however, so far we haven’t see any libel lawsuits filed by OneCoin lawyers.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.