The Münster Regional Court in Germany has handed down sentences in the notorious OneCoin crypto MLM fraud case, sentencing Frank Ricketts to five years and his wife, Manon Hubenthal, to four years in prison. The couple was convicted of amassing approximately €320 million from around 90,000 OneCoin victims across Europe. Their lawyer, Martin Breidenbach, was convicted of money laundering.
Alongside them, a Munich lawyer implicated in the scandal received a two-year and nine-month prison sentence for his role in transferring some of these illicit funds to overseas accounts. This legal professional was charged with money laundering in connection with the scheme.
The German-based couple played a central role in the OneCoin Ponzi scheme, defrauding millions of customers of up to three billion euros. Acting as the European financial hub for the global OneCoin fraud, Manon Hubenthal, 50, and her husband Frank Ricketts, 71, established a company in Greven, Germany, to facilitate these transactions and entered into a contract with Ruja Ignatova, the mastermind behind the scam.
Read our OneCoin reports here.
In a case involving almost 13,000 counts of fraud, the court ordered the seizure of assets from the defendants:
- €43,500 from Manon Hubenthal,
- nearly €1.2 million from Frank Rickets,
- €627,000 from the Munich lawyer, and
- €41 million from a company operated by the couple.
The court found that the defendants had meticulously avoided any direct reference to OneCoin in their banking activities.
During the three-year trial, which spanned 43 days of hearings, the district court thoroughly examined the fraudulent operation.
Although the defendants claimed ignorance of the full extent of the OneCoin scam, the court concluded that they had recognized enough indications of fraud. The Greven couple also lacked the authorization to conduct such financial transactions.
The Munich lawyer was accused of diverting €20 million to foreign accounts under false pretenses. The defense argued that the defendants had believed OneCoin to be a legitimate currency and had sought acquittal or a lenient suspended sentence.
Ruja Ignatova, the alleged creator of OneCoin, has been missing since 2017. The Bulgarian, who grew up in southern Germany, is on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted list.
