The U.S. State Department has increased the reward to $5 million for information leading to the arrest of OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova, who has not been seen since 2017.
Ignatova, nicknamed ‘Cryptocurrency Queen’, was also added. He was placed on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list for June 2022 and was previously reward set For $100,000. According to the FBI, Ignatova may have had plastic surgery to change her appearance and may have traveled with a security guard. poster.
Ignatova founded OneCoin with Karl Sebastian Greenwood in 2014. The State Department called it “one of the largest global fraud schemes in history,” which resulted in losses to investors of more than $4 billion. Greenwood is be arrested He was extradited to the United States in 2018 after being indicted in Thailand on fraud and money laundering charges. Last year, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined $300 million.
Ignatova was indicted in 2017 on charges of wire fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The U.S. State Department said in her Wednesday statement that two weeks after she was indicted, Ignatova went to Greece to avoid her arrest.
OneCoin sold cryptocurrency through a global multi-level marketing network, which prosecutors say contributed to its growth. Prosecutors said Greenwood and Ignatova wanted investors to believe OneCoin was similar to Bitcoin, often drawing comparisons between the two.
The new $5 million grant was approved by the Department of State’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program. effort The program, which helps law enforcement agencies stop transnational crime and allows the Secretary of State to offer rewards of up to $25 million, was created in 2013.
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About the author
Sarah is a reporter for The Block covering policy, regulation and legal events. Sarah was previously a reporter writing about securities regulation at CQ Legal, where she first began her reporting on cryptocurrencies. She Sarah has also written for The Bond Buyer and American Banker, among other financial publications. She graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in Print and Digital Journalism. Sarah lives in Washington, DC and she is an avid coffee lover. You can follow her on Twitter @ForTheWynn.