The State Department has offered a $5 million bounty on OneCoin, the “Queen of Cryptocurrencies.”
US authorities continue to hunt for the elusive “Crypto Queen,” OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova, in connection with a $4 billion Ponzi scheme.
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$5 million bounty on OneCoin
For information leading to Ignatova’s capture or conviction, the U.S. State Department is offering a reward of up to $5 million. Ignatova vanished in 2017.
Following the discovery by authorities that OneCoin was an international fraud organization, Ruja Ignatova, also known as the Cryptoqueen, went into hiding. Ignatova vanished and hopped on a plane headed for Athens in 2018, not long after the US government revealed her indictment.
Compared to the $250,000 that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had previously given around 2022, the new prize represents a significant rise.
OneCoin co-conspirators have been arrested and convicted.
Ignatova and several OneCoin co-conspirators raised an estimated $4 billion from investors between 2014 and 2017. Investors were promised high returns on their capital and tokens in exchange for their money. However, the shameful project never actually existed on a blockchain or decentralized network.
The State Department called Ignatova’s campaign one of the largest global fraud schemes in history. While Ignatova has disappeared into the shadows, other OneCoin co-conspirators have been arrested and convicted.
Co-founder Carl Greenwood was sentenced to 20 years in prison for fraud, and two lawyers involved in the project received at least four years in prison.
Ignatova has disappeared into the shadows
The whereabouts of the Crypto Queen herself remain unknown to this day. After fleeing to Athens, authorities and speculators suspected that Ignatova had undergone cosmetic surgery, possibly to change her appearance.
In 2018, Bulgarian media reported that she was murdered on a yacht by local crime boss “Taki.” Both assumptions remain unconfirmed, and Ignatova is said to be on the run.
Ignatova has been charged in Bulgaria, Germany, India and the United States with bank fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and securities fraud. Bulgarian authorities have also decided to try Ignatova in default for her role in a multi-billion-dollar cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme.
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