In May 2022, the Bulgarian Onecoin founder and Cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova were added to the most wanted list by Europol. FinTelegram reported. On 30 June 2022, the US Attorney SNDY informed via Twitter that Ruja Ignatova has been added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for allegedly defrauding investors of more than $4 billion through the OneCoin. Konstantin Ignatov, Ruja Ignatova’s brother was also arrested in Los Angeles in March 2019 and pleaded guilty on the grounds of money laundering and fraud.
Read FinTelegram OneCoin reports here.
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to her arrest. The crypto scheme OneCoin was operating as multilevel marketing (MLM) network offering commissions to members who lured others to be part of OneCoin. According to Bloomberg, OneCoin had generated over $3.78 billion in revenue just from the last quarter of 2014.
Mark S. Scott, a former partner of the US law firm Locke Lord partner was convicted in 2019 for laundering about $400 million in an alleged $4 billion cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme OneCoin. Prosecutors had portrayed Scott, as an integral part of OneCoin, alleging that he spent the $50 million he reaped from the scheme on seaside real estate, fancy cars, and a million-dollar yacht. Scott is fighting for a new trial based on claiming that Ignatova’s brother Konstantin Ignatov, perjured himself during the trial. Scott says the government failed to investigate the perjury allegations after being tipped off.
