'Cryptoqueen' Ruja Ignatova Added To Europe’s Most Wanted List
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Europol Have Added Ignatovo to Its Most Wanted List
Europol is offering a 5,000 Euro reward for information leading to Ruja Ignatova's arrest on fraud charges for promoting a fake cryptocurrency and scamming billions out of it.
Identified by BBC as one of the biggest scams in crypto history, OneCoin was launched by Ignatova in 2014 who promoted it as a "Bitcoin killer".
After its launch Ignatova managed to raise money from investors in 175 different countries before fleeing to Athens, Greece in 2017, shortly after OneCoin was found to be a full-fledged scam.
People Connected to Ignatova are Under Charges
OneCoin's business model functioned like a typical financial ponzi scheme. For instance, it involved selling educational cryptocurrency trading packages to its members, who were incentivised with commissions to sell to yet more new members.
Ignatova has evaded law enforcement, but people connected to her and OneCoin have faced charges. In 2019, Mark Scott, OneCoin's lawyer, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering and bank fraud by the U.S. District Court in Manhattan and is still awaiting sentencing.
Meanwhile, her brother, Konstantin Ignatov, pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering before testifying against Scott in his trial. Scott is still awaiting sentencing.