Onecoin ‘Crypto Queen’ Ruja Ignatova Listed Among Europe’s Most Wanted – Ruja Ignatova, the mastermind behind the infamous Onecoin pyramid, is now one of Europe’s most wanted criminals. She was also known as the “Crypto Queen,” and she vanished nearly five years ago after her Ponzi scheme accumulated billions of dollars from deceived investors all over the world.
Europol, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, has announced a reward of up to €5,000 ($5,200) for any information leading to the arrest of Ruja Ignatova, who is suspected of masterminding Onecoin, one of the greatest cryptocurrency scams in history.
Ignatova, a doctor of law, is described in the release as the “driving force and intellectual originator of the claimed cryptocurrency Onecoin.” Europol states that she is suspected of enticing individuals all around the world to invest in “this absolutely worthless ‘currency.”
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The government also notes that the fraud-related losses associated with the Ponzi scheme that have been identified thus far are in the upper double-digit million level, while noting that the total harm produced on a global scale is likely to be in the billions of dollars.
Europol affirms:
“Since October 25, 2017, the wanted person’s whereabouts have been unknown, and she has not been seen in public, either in connection with OneCoin or otherwise.”
Ignatova has been charged with “fraud, including that impacting the financial interests of the European Communities as defined by the Convention of July 26, 1995.” The promised reward is solely for private persons who supply critical information regarding her whereabouts, not for law enforcement personnel pursuing criminal charges.
On the initiative of German law enforcement, the Crypto Queen has been added to Europe’s Most Wanted list. The public prosecutor’s office in Bielefeld has offered a €5,000 prize, according to a police release in the western German province of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Ruja Ignatova, a Bulgarian-born German national, founded Onecoin in 2014. The project’s cryptocurrency was dubbed the “Bitcoin killer” and pushed by Bulgarian offshore companies Onecoin Ltd., based in Dubai, and Onelife Network Ltd., based in Belize. Ignatova and her companion Sebastian Greenwood, who is now imprisoned in the United States, founded both.
Ruja’s brother, Konstantin Ignatov, a co-founder of Onecoin, was arrested and accused with financial offences in Los Angeles in 2019. He has subsequently begun collaborating with the case’s investigators, testified about Onecoin’s ties to organized crime, pleaded guilty, and requested witness protection.
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A lawyer for investors requested Bulgaria to act on the matter in November, stating that the scam was still operating out of the nation. Jonathan Levy accused officials of neglecting to provide justice to the victims in a petition to the Bulgarian ombudsman. He further claimed that the Ignatovs and Onecoin organizations still had property, crypto assets, and fiat funds worth more than €12.5 billion (more than $13 billion).
