The notorious “Cryptoqueen,” the mastermind behind a $4 billion Ponzi scheme, remains at large six years after her arrest in the massive OneCoin fraud, while her partner has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Ruja Ignatova, an Oxford-educated Bulgarian national, disappeared in 2017 after being charged with one of the largest cryptocurrency scams in history. Swedish national Karl Greenwood, her accomplice, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges last December and received the 20-year sentence in a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday.
The US District Judge referred to the OneCoin fraud as “massive” and compared it to Bernie Madoff’s scheme. The fraud impacted over 3.5 million victims from 2014 to 2016 and involved a staggering $4 billion. Ignatova, 43, was last seen publicly in 2017 and has evaded authorities since. She has been featured on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list and a reward of up to $250,000 is being offered for information leading to her arrest. The FBI describes her as potentially having altered her appearance and traveling with armed guards or associates.
Ignatova was a subject of intense scrutiny following the collapse of OneCoin. She earned scholarships and degrees from prestigious universities and had experience working in consulting and investment banking. Along with Greenwood, she launched OneCoin as a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme. Prosecutors claim that it was conceived as a fraud from the start. OneCoin operated as a global multi-level marketing scam, and members were paid commissions for recruiting others to invest in the scheme. The value of the cryptocurrency was artificially set by the co-conspirators and was effectively worthless.
Greenwood profited over $300 million from the pyramid scheme, which he used to finance a luxurious lifestyle. As part of his sentence, he was ordered to forfeit his ill-gotten gains. Ignatova and Greenwood were charged with defrauding customers out of $4 billion. They made false promises of a “financial revolution” and claimed that OneCoin would rival Bitcoin. The US Attorney hopes that their lengthy sentence sends a strong message to the financial sector and deters others from exploiting the cryptocurrency ecosystem through fraud. At his sentencing hearing, Greenwood expressed deep remorse for the pain he caused and the irreparable harm he inflicted.
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