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Welcome to a get-rich-quick scheme that has, it claims, created 300 millionaires in a year.

Called OneCoin, it’s supposed to be a virtual or crypto currency and rival to the market-leading Bitcoin – digital money that can be traded and spent online.

The audience at a recruiting rally last Saturday at a London hotel was told that it is also a way to get very rich.

“The earlier you join, the more you make,” gushed one speaker.

The rally was billed as the first UK national event for OneCoin and attracted a whooping crowd of 1,000.

I won’t be joining, here’s why.

Smoke and Mirrors

Your joining fee – ranging from a £100 Starter Package to £28,000 for a Special Combo Package – does not buy OneCoins themselves. Instead it just buys you tokens. The idea is that these can later be exchanged or “mined” to get OneCoins.

Some deals involve so-called splits which double your stash of tokens.

A speaker, almost crazed with enthusiasm, gave the example of someone who pays 5,000 euros – about £3,900 – for the Tycoon Trader package. Thanks to splits this turns into £8,500.

And – get this – that’s without the value of OneCoin even increasing. Yes, you can more than double your money even if the thing you’ve invested in stays at the same price.

That’s the worst-case scenario, too. The speaker held out the possibility of your 5,000 euros turning into 37,710 as OneCoin rises in price.

The possibility of this virtual currency falling was, er, not mentioned.

Appeals to Greed

“I’m like you guys, I want to be rich,” declared a speaker. “Why do I want to be rich? Because even if I cry, I prefer to cry in my tinted Porsche than the back of a double decker bus.”

Key speaker Kari Wahlroos, the OneCoin Europe ambassador, strode on stage in sunglasses.

“Do you know why I wear shades?” he asked. “Because the future looks so bright.” And he insisted: “I am here to make you filthy rich”.

Which just made me feel dirty.

Here We Go Again

Kari used to bang the drum as a Crown Ambassador for something called Wellstar – motto: “Building your own dream life”. He was on stage in 2014 wearing those same shades, only the future didn’t turn out to be so bright for him.

He parted company with it amid a public slanging match on Facebook full of claim and counterclaim.

Wahlroos said “This company will never deliver on the promises” while the Wellstar founder Christian Weisner accused him of making “cheap and false allegations”.

Due Diligence

Kari claimed that OneCoin was ranked No 2 in the world by market capital. In crypto-currencies, this is measured by multiplying the number of coins by their value.

Bitcoin is the world leader, with a market capital of $5.7billion. Kari claimed that OneCoin came next, with a market capital of $3billion. Yet if you look on websites such as coinmarketcap.com that value these currencies, OneCoin is not second, third, fourth or indeed anywhere at all. It is non-existent.

Pressure Sales

The audience was tempted with a Special Combo Package. You get 506,000 tokens, and six splits turn them into 32million tokens. The cost was roughly £28,000 and those splits would turn that into £1.2million.

And that’s also even if OneCoin doesn’t increase in value – that financial miracle again. If the value goes up your investment is worth even more. But hurry, this offer is available only until February 20.

The Maths Don’t Work

A group of OneCoin members climbed on stage and were introduced as “the special people, they came out from their comfort zone, they saw the vision”. They spoke of the number of people they’ve recruited – 20… 100… even 1,000 in one case. If those 1,000 hope to match this by getting 1,000 recruits each, that would need a million people.

And if that million want 1,000 recruits each, well, good luck getting 1,000 million people to “see the vision”.

The Small Print

At the bottom of the terms and conditions on the OneCoin website are two tell-tale phrases. The first is: “The company does not warrant that product descriptions or other content is accurate, complete, reliable, current, or error-free.” The second: “The company reserves the right to, at any given time, change the OneCoin Compensation Plan.”

It Doesn’t Add Up

The audience was told that there are already 1,000 crypto-currencies in the world. Yet the founder of OneCoin, Ruja Ignatova from Bulgaria, declared: “We can be one of the first.”

Sound of Silence

Kari and Ruja left the stage immediately after their lectures. No one was given the chance to ask awkward questions. My subsequent emails to them have not had any meaningful response.

Who Are You?

Is OneCoin incorporated and, if so, where and who are the directors and shareholders? None of these questions are answered on its website.

Reflected Glory

Speakers referenced genuine business giants – Bill Gates and Richard Branson were named even though neither have any connection with OneCoin.

As for Bitcoin, I lost track of the number of times that was cited.

Friends and Family

Big payouts were promised for enlisting more recruits. “Every person you introduce, you make 10% of whatever they put into the company,” gushed a speaker. “You get an investor on 5,000 euros, you get 500 euros.”

That alone would have me heading for the door. Don’t worry, the audience was told: “Crazy people make crazy money.”

All Fur Coat and No Knickers

Despite all the talk of riches, the event felt cheap. Tickets cost £25 yet there was not so much as a complimentary coffee. And anyone expecting some paperwork, yet alone glossy brochures, would have been disappointed.

Read more:Andrew Penman investigations

Can’t Stand It

Key lecturers were greeted with rapturous ovations and everyone was cajoled into joining in. Before Kari Wahlroos came on stage, a voice bellowed through the speakers: “Get up! Get up!”

OneCoin members even have a little sign they make to each other, holding their thumb and forefinger to make a circle.

Maybe it’s meant to symbolise a coin. It certainly added to the feeling that this was more of a cult than a sound financial institution.

To me the sign looked like the number zero – which happens to be the amount I would invest.