EXCLUSIVE: 5-YEAR PRISON SENTENCE FOR FORMER ISLANDER INVOLVED IN LARGE-SCALE CRYPTO SCAM

A former Isle of Wight man now living in Germany has been sentenced to 5 years in prison for his part in an elaborate cryptocurrency scam. Frank Robert Ricketts, 71, was handed a 5-year prison sentence at The Münster Regional Court earlier this week (Monday) after his involvement in a large-scale cryptocurrency fraud. Ricketts married on the Island and used to have ties to the Blackwater area. He still has family here. His wife, 50-year-old Manon Hubenthal, was also sentenced to 4 years behind bars for her involvement. The German-based couple played a central role in the OneCoin Ponzi scheme, defrauding millions of customers of up to €3billion. Acting as the European financial hub for the global OneCoin fraud, the husband and wife team established a company in Greven, Germany to facilitate transactions and entered into a contract with ‘Crypto Queen’ Ruja Ignatova, the mastermind behind the scam who is on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list. Those involved in the scam were selling non-existent cryptocurrency as well as worthless investment strategies and training to anyone willing to invest in what they thought was a legitimate operation. According to German media reports, the court ordered the seizure of assets from both Ricketts and Hubenthal, with Ricketts ordered to pay nearly €1.2million, whilst his wife was instructed to pay €43,500. A total of €41million was ordered to be taken from a company operated by the couple. The protracted trial, which spanned nearly 3 years, saw authorities thoroughly examine the fraudulent operation which was first uncovered back in 2016 thanks to work from organisations across the globe.