The United States increases the reward to $5 million! Vows to bring the founder of OneCoin to justice

In an update to the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted List", the U.S. Department of State's Transnational Organized Crime Reward Program showed that the authorities are willing to increase the reward to $5 million for information related to "OneCoin" "The whereabouts of founder Ruja Ignatova, as well as all information that could convict her.

Ruja Ignatova, known as the "Cryptoqueen", has suddenly disappeared from public view since 2017, leaving global investors in the dark about the whereabouts of her funds. According to sources, the OneCoin founder’s last confirmed haunt was in Athens in October 2017.

OneCoin was promoted as a revolutionary digital currency that promised huge profits, but was later revealed to be a Ponzi scheme that relied on new investments to pay off existing investors. The scheme attracted millions of investors with the promise of high returns, but collapsed when Ruja Ignatova disappeared.

U.S. authorities charged Ruja Ignatova with fraud and money laundering in 2017 and issued a federal arrest warrant for her. In June 2022, Ruja Ignatova was included in the top ten most wanted fugitives list with a reward of $100,000, and later in 2023. The reward was increased to $250,000, but as of the time of publication, Ruja Ignatova remains at large. The FBI report said she held a German passport and "may have had plastic surgery or otherwise altered her appearance." The FBI's increased reward underscores the determination to bring Ruja Ignatova to justice.

OneCoin was founded in 2014 and revealed in 2015 as a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme that defrauded investors of approximately $4 billion. Several people have been criminally prosecuted in the United States for their role in the scheme, including Ruja Ignatova's boyfriend Gilbert Armenta, attorney Mark Scott, former legal and compliance executive Irina Dilkinska, co-founders Karl Sebastian Greenwood and William Morro. Ruja Ignatova’s brother Konstantin Ignatov pleaded guilty in 2019 to fraud and money laundering charges related to his involvement in the OneCoin scheme, was sentenced to 34 months in prison, and was released in March 2024.

Karl Greenwood, the co-founder of “OneCoin”, has been detained since being extradited from Thailand to the United States in 2018, and signed a plea in December 2022, admitting to charges of wire fraud and money laundering; In September 2023, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison in a Lower Manhattan court and ordered to recover US$300 million in illegal gains.

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