The US offered on Wednesday a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest of fugitive Bulgarian-born “cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova.
Kenneth Merten, the US ambassador to Bulgaria, stated that Ignatova is wanted in the United States and Germany “for her participation in one of the largest global fraud schemes in history” that duped victims of more than $4 billion.
Ignatova eluded arrest by fleeing on a flight from Sofia to Athens two weeks after being indicted in October 2017, and her whereabouts are unknown.
Ignatova, a German citizen, is suspected of being the mastermind of the massive fraudulent virtual currency scheme OneCoin.
In 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation added her to its top ten most wanted list. Merten said the US will release a statement later Wednesday outlining how people can “anonymously provide tips to assist us in this ongoing investigation.”
According to the accusation, Ignatova created OneCoin in Sofia in 2014 with the goal of pocketing some of the money placed on the platform by her clients.
In fact, once clients accepted the scam, it was nearly impossible for them to reclaim their payments, investigators claim.
Instead, OneCoin provided more credits to individuals who recruited others, allowing the company to expand swiftly while scamming investors from China to the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.
Bulgaria intends to file charges against her in absentia, allowing proceedings to begin to take her property worth more than ten million euros, chief prosecutor Borislav Sarafov said on Wednesday.
Konstantin Ignatov, Ignatova’s brother and OneCoin’s current CEO, were detained in Los Angeles in 2019.
He pleaded guilty and received a sentence of 34 months in jail. He was released in March 2024.
Sebastian Greenwood, co-founder of the network, was extradited from Thailand and sentenced to 20 years in prison in the United States last year.
In Summary
The US is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Ruja Ignatova, the fugitive “cryptoqueen” wanted for orchestrating a $4 billion global fraud through the OneCoin scheme.
Ignatova, indicted in October 2017 and on the run since then, is sought by US and German authorities.
The scheme, started in 2014 where she duped investors worldwide by making it nearly impossible to reclaim their money.
Her brother, Konstantin Ignatov, and co-founder, Sebastian Greenwood, have been prosecuted, with Greenwood sentenced to 20 years in the US. Bulgaria plans to charge Ignatova in absentia to seize her assets.
