Ruja Ignatova, a woman dubbed the ‘crypto Queen’ is being added to the FBI’s list of Ten Most Wanted fugitives for allegedly swindling millions of investors of more than $4 billion through the OneCoin cryptocurrency company she founded.
The US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation put up a $100,000 reward for the Bulgarian woman, who disappeared in Greece in October 2017 around the time US authorities filed a sealed indictment and warrant for her arrest.
About Ruja Ignatova
In 2014 Ignatova launched OneCoin, ostensibly aiming to replace Bitcoin as the world’s leading virtual money. OneCoin operated around the world, including in the US, and at one point claimed to have at least three million investors.
The 42-year-old woman, Ignatova, had a sterling resume, she reportedly studied law at Oxford and worked at McKinsey.
Tapping a global network to market the coin to friends and family in exchange for their own payouts, she and her co-conspirators pulled in at least $3.4 billion and possibly over $4 billion from the fourth quarter of 2014 to the third quarter of 2016, but had no real value and couldn’t be used to buy anything.
According to the AFP news agency, OneCoin was not backed by any secured, independent blockchain-type technology as other cryptocurrencies are.
Citing an official, the agency said that OneCoin was a classic Ponzi scheme, in which early investors are encouraged to find others and then paid out by receipts from later investors.
Ignatova disappeared in 2017 as international investigators began to close in on her group. She traveled from Sofia, Bulgaria, to Athens, Greece, on October 25, 2017, and has not been seen since.
The US unsealed an indictment against her in 2019, charging her with wire fraud, conspiracy to launder money, and securities fraud.
On May 11, Europol announced it had added Ignatova to its most-wanted list, and offered a 5,000 euro ($5,200) reward for information on her whereabouts.
Her brother Konstantin Ignatov was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in March 2019 and later pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a deal with US authorities.
Another partner, Sebastian Greenwood, was detained in Thailand in 2018 and then extradited to the United States, where he remains in jail awaiting trial.
Another accomplice, US attorney Mark Scott, was convicted in November 2019 of laundering $400 million for the group.
For all the latest world News Click Here
