Jawad Yaqub allegedly claimed that he had 'obtained an MPhil and PhD from Queen’s University Belfast'. Photograph: Agency StockA Co Down company director is to go on trial next year accused of an international multimillion pound bitcoin fraud after he denied the offences on Thursday.
In Downpatrick Crown Court, 45-year-old Jawad Yaqub entered not guilty pleas to each of the 25 charges against him. On an indictment covering a time span between February 2016 and October 2018 Yaqub, from Ben Vista Park in Holywood, faces 19 charges of converting criminal property, four counts of fraud by false representation and single charges of fraudulent training and theft.
While the alleged facts surrounding the charges have not been opened in court, the particulars of the fraud charges reveal that according to the Crown case Yaqub was a director in Razormind Limited but carried on his business “for a fraudulent purpose namely to defraud participants in the DeOS crowd sale”.