Monitoring Desk
Ruja Ignatova, a German citizen, has been added to the FBI’s list of its 10 most-wanted fugitives, after she swindled investors of $4 billion through her fake cryptocurrency called OneCoin, according to US FBI investigators.
By operating the Bulgaria-based OneCoin Ltd as a pyramid scheme, Ignatova, popularly known as “Cryptoqueen,” was charged in 2019 with eight counts, including wire and securities fraud. According to the prosecution, the company paid members commissions to persuade others to buy a ‘useless’ cryptocurrency.
Emergence of cryptocurrency and investors
The fraud occurred in June 2016, when investors rushed to capitalize on the emergence of the cryptocurrency industry. Ignatova referred to herself as the “Cryptoqueen” and promoted OneCoin as Bitcoin’s lucrative alternative in the expanding cryptocurrency industry.
Ignatova took a flight in Sofia, Bulgaria, and left the town 16 months later before she disappeared. Since then, no one has seen her.
US authorities say that OneCoin was a pyramid scam that defrauded investors of more than $4 billion after Ignatova persuaded investors in the US and throughout the world to invest large sums of money in her cryptocurrency.
OneCoin is one of the biggest global fraud schemes ever, according to US federal officials. She is now the only woman on the FBI’s list of the 10 most wanted fugitives, which also includes alleged gang leaders and murderers. She is one of the 11 women among the 529 fugitives the FBI has listed since 1950.
According to court documents, she was aware of the scheme straight away. Ignatova’s face has been prominently displayed on the FBI website and on other international news sites ever since she vanished in October 2017.
Additionally, she is among the most wanted fugitives in Europe. Ignatova is thought to travel with armed guards and/or associates, according to the statement at the bottom of her FBI wanted poster.
Ignatova might have changed her appearance through plastic surgery or another method, according to the FBI. OneCoin’s co-founders, Karl Sebastian Greenwood and Ignatova, allegedly referred to it as a “trashy currency” in emails as they were researching the idea, according to federal officials’ court records.
In an email to Konstantin Ignatov, who also participated in the scheme and took over OneCoin when his sister fled, according to records. Greenwood referred to their investors as “idiots” and “crazy,” according to US prosecutors.
Ignatova and Greenwood, the co-founder, began pitching OneCoin to investors in 2014 in locations including Europe and New York. According to a federal indictment, they held online conferences and webinars where they persuaded prospective investors to make deposits into accounts that would permit the purchase of OneCoin bundles.
According to federal prosecutors, OneCoin functioned as a multilevel marketing system in which investors were paid commissions for bringing in new customers to purchase cryptocurrency packages. From “beginning” to “tycoon trader,” the packages catered to different income levels. According to court records, Ignatova and her partners promised customers a five- or ten-fold return on their investment.
Ignatova was charged by the US Department of Justice in October 2017 with one count each of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, all of which carry a maximum 20-year prison sentence. She was also accused of conspiring to commit securities fraud on one count, a crime punishable by a potential five-year sentence. A warrant for her arrest was issued by a federal judge in New York.
She departed Sofia, Bulgaria, for Athens, Greece, on a commercial airline less than two weeks later on October 25, 2017, according to court records. She then vanished, leaving her colleagues in the business to take the blame for the failed business.
In Athens, she may have used a German passport to travel to Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Eastern Europe, or even back to Bulgaria, according to the FBI. A $100,000 reward is being offered for information about her wherabouts.
OneCoin no longer operating
However, the originator of the business—the woman with the long gowns and the glittering jewelry—has avoided capture. The Cryptoqueen’s whereabouts are unknown more than five years after she deplaned in Greece.
