CHAPTER 28
ARRESTS
Barnstable, Massachusetts, September 5, 2018
At 5:30 AM, FBI Special Agent James Eckel and IRS Agent Kristine Fata met with local police officers at a pre-operational briefing meeting at Barnstable Police Department, a small municipal building on Phinney’s Lane, which housed the 100 or so police staff for the county. Brian Guiney, a heavy-set Barnstable detective with a thick Bostonian accent, was the local lead on the case. It was a warm late summer morning, and Cape Cod was still just about in season, with enough wealthy holidaymakers to keep the shops and cafes open. The local cops were more used to dealing with tourists asking directions to the local restaurants or President Kennedy’s old haunts than financial fraud and money laundering.
From there, a small unit—the two federal agents plus local officers—took Phinney’s Lane northbound toward the coast. It took five minutes to reach Sunset Lane, one of the town’s most desirable streets. Number 133, “Villa Meeresblick,” was a stately coastal property with a large backyard that looked out over the inlet of Cape Cod Bay, close to where British pilgrims on the Mayflower first made landfall in 1620. As they drew close, Agent Eckel received word over the police wire that the suspect was driving nearby in his new BMW. They hit the sirens and rushed to intercept him.
When they pulled the car over, the driver politely told officers that there was a .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun loaded with 13 rounds of ammunition in the glove compartment.1 Detective Guiney identified himself and told the driver they were revoking his gun license. “Mark Scott, you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Anything you say may be…”
Mark Scott was too tired to argue. He probably hadn’t slept for days. Over the last few weeks, he seemed to have grown increasingly paranoid and edgy. NO TRESPASS signs adorned his backyard, much to the frustration of local residents, who were usually relaxed about walkers wandering through gardens to enjoy the long tidal flats.
As Mark was driven back to Barnstable police station for booking, Detective Guiney and the two federal agents continued to Mark’s home on Sunset Lane. His wife, Lidia, answered the door and FBI Agent Eckel flashed the search warrant. On entering the building, Detective Guiney spotted a loaded, unsecured semi-automatic handgun on the living room table and a small child playing nearby. Lidia was arrested too on charges of wanton or reckless behavior, and the child swiftly placed in the custody of the authorities. Detective Guiney soon found several more guns dotted all over the house: a revolver with six rounds in a desk drawer; a handgun; a shotgun and 150 rounds of ammunition. In a town that was a virtual crime-free zone, it looked like Mark was preparing for a siege. Detective Guiney had been a police officer in this state for 30 years; this was not a routine case.
It wasn’t even 7:30 AM by the time Mark Scott was sitting across from Agents Eckel and Fata in an interview room at Barnstable police station. It all happened so quickly that Mark didn’t have time to get his lawyers to join—if they had, they would probably have told him to keep quiet. The two agents had 40 years of experience between them. They knew how to play this.
“I wanna say, off the top, that I’m, like, absolutely surprised at what’s going on,” Mark said, staying cool.
“Who are the investors in Fenero?” asked Agent Fata, not skipping a beat.
“Well, there are a bunch of, uhh, companies,” replied Mark.
“What about B&N Consult?” That was Irina’s company. Alongside IMS, Star and Fates, it was one of the four companies that had sent almost €400 million into Mark’s fake fund. (And €200,000 into the online casino company.)
“B&N Consult is one of the investors,” said Mark.
“Who is that?”
“Ummm, Irina,” said Mark.
“What’s the last name?” replied Agent Fata.
“I can’t remember it right now,” Mark replied, stumbling his words. “I don’t, I mean, I’m sure she’s a, she’s a, from Bulgaria, but I can’t tell you the last name off the top of my head. Dil, dil, dil… something ka. Ahh, I just don’t know how to spell it right now.”
Mark Scott had worked with Irina Dilkinska constantly for two years. They were even co-directors on two of the Irish companies.
“Tell us a little bit more about Irina,” Agent Eckel said.
“Umm, she was introduced to me by… another person that Gilbert [Armenta] brought to me, which is, umm, she is very famous because she does all this crypto stuff now. Umm, uhh, Ruja, and… she—”
“That’s her first name?” Eckel interrupted. It was impossible not to notice Mark was umming and ahhing a lot.
“Ruja is her first name,” said Mark, who was rambling. “And, umm, she was involved in some cryptocurrency. She had one of those Bitcoin, or has one of those Bitcoin type of deals…”
“So where is Ruja?” asked Agent Fata.
“I have no idea… don’t speak to her any more.”
“So, Fenero was not involved with OneCoin at all?” asked Agent Eckel. They knew of course that it was. They had recordings of Mark’s calls to Apex, hundreds of subpoenaed documents and bank records, and Gilbert Armenta’s testimony. They knew everything. This interview was mainly to see what Mark Scott would tell them about it. Would he lie? Did he have something to confess?
“No.”
“Not at all?”
“I mean, no contracts or anything as far as I know, no.”
“OK, funded by OneCoin?”
“Not that I know of… We had a, we had one company that got close where we knew they had a, they had a relationship in terms of processing. They were doing accounting for, for OneCoin.”
Bingo! Mark Scott was lying to the FBI and IRS. It was time to change tack.
“We’re going to be honest with you here,” said Agent Eckel. “You have a very small window of opportunity to help yourself, OK?… We know that OneCoin was involved in Fenero, OK? We have that information… And we can’t help you if you’re not going to be forthcoming with us. Do you understand?”
“Yeah,” said Mark.
“Is there anything else you want to tell us about any of this?” asked Agent Eckel.
“Well, no. I’m, I’m, I’m really…” Mark stuttered. “I appreciate that and, and, and, but I’m telling you when we started… I would not view [OneCoin] as involved as you might… think, and that’s what I’m trying to explain…”
Mark was being evasive and vague. Agent Eckel had dealt with this before. He’d been at the Bureau for over 30 years—during which time he’d investigated anarchists, organized crime and political blackmail. He could handle Mark Scott.
“I’m going to ask you one more time,” he persisted. “OneCoin and Ruja were not investors in Fenero?” Agent Fata, pushing on Mark’s conscience, added: “This is your one opportunity. You have a small child at home. You have your wife. I’m sure you have a life that you want to live. This is your one opportunity to help yourself. So just think about that for a moment before you answer.”
“Yeah, I would love to discuss this further. I really would,” replied Mark. “But I’d like to have a lawyer help me with that.”
Mark wasn’t going to say anything more. Had his lawyer been present, he would have told Mark that he’d already said too much.
Later that day, Agents Eckel and Fata returned to 133 Sunset Lane. Mark’s 2018 White Porsche 911 GTRS2 was parked in the driveway.2 The FBI search and seizure team meticulously combed the house for evidence. After a couple of hours, they walked out with piles of bank and financial records, seventeen phones, six laptops, three memory cards, two iPads and five flash drives. In total it was three terabytes of data—equivalent to hundreds of thousands of documents. Another search and seizure team at Mark’s home in Coral Gables, Florida, grabbed a further two terabytes and another four guns.3 They also confiscated any items that might have been purchased using the proceeds of crime: three Porsches plus his Sunseeker Predator 57 yacht from the nearby Hyannis Port.
When news of Mark’s arrest reached Sofia a day or two later, Irina Dilkinska almost fainted.
“I’m fucked,” she shouted at Konstantin when she arrived at the office, panicking. “I’m in all documents with Mark Scott!” she said. “When they get him, they’ll also get me!”
Later that day, Irina went home and started burning documents. Over the past 18 months, she’d acquired dozens of legal documents relating to Ruja’s and Mark’s affairs, many with her name on them: a Venezuelan machinery deal, which mentioned her Florida-based company H&H CA Corp, her joint-directorship of Payments Card Technology with Mark, the paperwork that proved her ownership of B&N Consult. That evening anything that linked her name to Mark and Fenero went up in flames.
Little known to anyone, two months before Mark Scott’s arrest, another police operation took place 6,000 miles away. This investigation, however, was far more low key. It had been slowly making its way through the various diplomatic channels. There were no press releases or public indictments. No one even knew this had happened at all until months later. Ruja had got away; but the FBI wasn’t going to let it happen again. US agents, along with Thailand’s notorious Crime Suppression Division, had tracked their target to a villa on the party island of Ko Samui. Inside was Sebastian Greenwood.