State Department announces $5M bounty for OneCoin ‘Crypto Queen’

The State Department announced on Wednesday that it was offering a $5 million reward for Ruja Ignatova, the so-called crypto queen who ran OneCoin once upon a time. 

Ignatova is accused of defrauding investors by promoting OneCoin as an investment — which would outshine bitcoin — when it was nothing more than a scam. She, and others running OneCoin, allegedly stole over $4 billion from victims. 

The “Crypto Queen” was indicted back in 2017, but became a fugitive shortly after. She’s reportedly been on the run ever since, though reports have emerged suggesting she may have been murdered. 

“Ignatova was indicted in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering,” the State Department’s press release announcing the bounty said.

“Two weeks after the indictment Ignatova traveled from Sofia, Bulgaria, to Athens, Greece, to evade arrest and has been a fugitive since that time. In February 2018, a superseding indictment was issued charging Ignatova with the additional crimes of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud,” it added.

The reward — which would be granted for information leading to either the arrest or conviction of Ignatova — is being offered under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program.

Ignatova is on the FBI’s Most Wanted list after being added back in 2022. 

Other conspirators in OneCoin, such as co-founder Karl Sebastien Greenwood and former legal chief Irina Dilkinska, have been sentenced by US courts and ordered to pay monetary penalties. 

Greenwood was sentenced to 20 years last year and was ordered to pay a $300 million fine for his involvement. Dilkinska, according to a DOJ press release, was sentenced to four years and ordered to forfeit roughly $111 million.

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