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Published Aug 2023
256 pages
Genre: True Crime
Publication Information
The astonishing true story of the Scottish coal miner's daughter who took on the Mafia-endorsed creators of the world's biggest financial fraud and helped the FBI to convict them—soon to be a major motion picture.
Jen McAdam, Scottish grandmother and daughter of a coal miner, was a victim of the Onecoin global crypto-currency fraud, which conned an estimated $27 billion from ordinary people around the world. Unlike Madoff or Enron, who relieved the world's wealthiest investors of their cash, the genius of the Onecoin scam was that it targeted the poorest people in the world, the 'unbanked' - people who struggled to get approval for bank accounts, and when they realized they had lost everything, were unlikely to be able to fight back. But they didn't bank on Jen McAdam.
Jen's father left her £15,000 when he died; his savings from living a careful life in a small Scottish mining town. Jen wanted this money to be the start of a better life for her and her son. She was digitally savvy, and she had heard of people making fortunes with Bitcoin. When she saw the promotional material for Onecoin - the founder Dr Ruja apparently featured in the Economist, videos of celebrity attended events, gushing video testimonials of people, just like her, who had changed their lives. She was entranced.
Only months later, she realized she would never see her money again.
Jen was one of the first victims to fight back, and despite terrifying attempts to shut her and her growing support groups down, she has tirelessly fought for justice for herself, her family and friends and the millions around the world who have lost everything, in some cases even their lives. Jen is a modern Erin Brokovich, and this is a true David and Goliath story, to give us all a message of hope about the power we as individuals can have, even when things seem hopeless.
"An unassuming Scottish grandmother takes down a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme in this exhilarating mix of memoir and true crime...This riveting account of a victim fighting back is an inspired, and inspiring, page-turner." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Swayed by the enigmatic business tycoon Dr. Ruja Ignatova, [McAdam] didn't realize she was giving her money to one of the world's most sinister scams... . A poignant dive into the rabbit hole of financial fraud and mysterious scammers." —Kirkus Reviews
"[A] cautionary tale and a story of endurance in the pursuit of justice... . McAdam relates how she worked with law enforcement to uncover the scandal, weathered death threats, and continued to tell her own story and push for awareness in the media." —Booklist
"General readers can learn from McAdam's experiences." —Library Journal
This information about Devil's Coin was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jennifer McAdam had a long career in the marketing industry before launching her own consultancy working with IT companies throughout Scotland and abroad. Illness forced here to cut back on work, but she remains active in the industry. Since 2016 she has worked full-time, even from her sickbed, through her online Victims' Support Group to fight for retribution for the OneCoin fraud and to see the perpetrators brought to justice.
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