The Los Angeles Times once called the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Manhattan “The Guantanamo of New York.” The 12-story building, which is home to almost a thousand inmates, is a dirty, claustrophobic, understaffed hellhole. The cells are tiny and usually shared with vermin. For years, activists have tried to get something done about the conditions, but no one cares about prisoners.
The MCC was the new home of inmate number 77737-112, Konstantin Ignatov.
The day after his arrest in Los Angeles, a Californian district court judge ruled Konstantin should be detained and sent to New York, where the original charges had been made. (For historic and political reasons, high-profile white collar crime cases are often led by the Southern District of New York.) Three weeks later, Konstantin was sitting in his cell, wondering what had just happened, and what he was going to do next.
He might not have realized that Sebastian Greenwood was sitting just a few cell blocks away.
Konstantin had already decided he would protest his innocence. One of the first things he did on arrival at the MCC was head to the secure computers on the second floor and email his fiancée and his mother to tell them he’d done nothing wrong. They hired Konstantin the best defense lawyer that money could buy: Jeffrey Lichtman. Ever since he’d secured the acquittal of New York mafia boss John Gotti Jr. on racketeering charges in the mid-2000s, Lichtman was known as the sharpest criminal lawyer in New York. When the drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was arrested in 2018, he hired Jeffrey Lichtman.
Lichtman’s first job was to get Konstantin out of the MCC. He proposed the most stringent bail conditions imaginable: full-time, self-funded armed guards, a $20 million personal bond, $8.5 million cash, no mobile phone and 24/7 GPS monitoring. He urged friends and family to write letters of support. (His father, Plamen, wrote that Konstantin had looked after him when he was ill. “Without him I wouldn’t have managed to successfully cope with my sickness… even after the surgery and during the recovery period, Konstantin continued to support me, his mother, and his family the way he has always done.”)
The prosecution countered that no bail conditions on earth were strong enough to stop Konstantin vanishing. He had too much money and too many connections—just like his sister. The judge agreed, and in June 2019 Konstantin was refused bail. Even Bernie Madoff had gotten bail.
After reviewing the charges and the evidence against him, Lichtman told Konstantin that if he wanted to see his partner he had one option: plead guilty and cooperate. Otherwise he would be prosecuted, and he would lose. For every defense of his sister he mounted, the FBI could produce an email, a recorded call, a private text message that took it apart. The government tightened the racks, adding wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit bank fraud to the existing conspiracy to commit wire fraud charge he was arrested for. Combined, that was up to 90 years behind bars.
The authorities were open to a plea deal. There were bigger fish than Konstantin, and his testimony could help them. Work with us, they told him, and you might see your family again. We might even be able to get you on the witness relocation program.
Konstantin had looked up to his sister since they were children. He considered Ruja his best friend, even if she did shout at him all the time.1 Cooperating with the authorities would mean telling the truth about everything—the blockchain, the pricing, the Fenero Funds, the Uganda trip. But the more evidence he was shown about OneCoin, especially the early emails between Ruja and Sebastian, the more Konstantin must have realized that when Ruja had said she would one day “disappear and let someone else take the blame,” that person had turned out to be him.
Conditions at the MCC can break anyone. In August 2019, four months after Konstantin’s arrival, Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself a few cells away. On October 4, 2019, with his lawyer present, Konstantin pleaded guilty to all counts, and signed a cooperation agreement. In exchange for—he hoped—a reduced sentence, Konstantin agreed to turn state witness.
When you sign the plea deal, you sign away everything. The word “cooperation” is misleading. Total subjection is more accurate. They can call you when they want, and wheel you in and out of court whenever they need. And if they suspect for a moment you’re lying, the deal is off. You don’t even know if you’ll get a reduced sentence either, because a judge decides that after you’ve done your work. Signing a deal means submitting to the system, including your own safety. “It is understood that Ignatov’s truthful cooperation with this office is likely to reveal activities of individuals who might use violence, force and intimidation against Ignatov, his family, and loved ones,” read the agreement.
But what it really meant to Konstantin was that he would have to testify very soon against Mark Scott. And maybe later against Sebastian Greenwood.
And, if she were ever caught, against his sister too.