The FBI has announced the addition of Ruja Ignatova, the self-proclaimed ‘Cryptoqueen,’ to its ten most wanted fugitives list after she allegedly swindled millions of investors out of more than $4 billion in the OneCoin scheme.
FBI Lists Ruja Ignatova as Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitive
On Thursday, June 30th, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that it was offering a $100,000 reward for the capture of the ‘Cryptoqueen’, who is now part of its ten most wanted fugitives.
In 2014, Ruja Ignatova and her partner founded OneCoin, a project company marketing the purported cryptocurrency and defrauded investors of over $4 billion over a period of three years.
The OneCoin Saga
Ignatova promoted OneCoin as a cryptocurrency that would outperform Bitcoin. With promises of better returns than with Bitcoin, investors were instructed to transmit their investment funds to purchase OneCoin packages.
However, investigators say that the Bulgarian-based project had no blockchain for securing these transactions, meaning that coins were essentially being minted out of thin air.
In 2017, the federal grand jury of the Southern District of New York indicted and issued an arrest warrant for Ruja Ignatova. However, the OneCoin founder traveled from Bulgaria to Greece on Oct. 25th, 2017, where she disappeared and has eluded authorities ever since.
The FBI suggests that, from Greece, Ignatova could have continued on to a new destination. At this time, the self-proclaimed Cryptoqueen’s whereabouts are currently unknown.
On the Flipside
- Sebastian Greenwood, the co-founder and global master distributor of OneCoin, has been arrested, and faces multiple counts of fraud.
Why You Should Care
Ruja Ignatova is wanted by the FBI for a global pyramid scheme that swindled millions of investors. Anybody with any information as to her whereabouts is advised to contact the bureau at tips.fbi.gov.
Ruja Ignatova has also reached the most wanted status in Europe.Find out more below:
Ruja “Cryptoqueen” Ignatova Becomes Europe’s Most Wanted
To read about some other dead projects similar to OneCoin, check out:
Top Crypto Projects We Believed in that Are Now Dead Coins
To learn about the different varieties of crypto scams and how to avoid them, read:
50 Shades of Crypto Scams