Cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova: $5 Million Reward Announced for Information Leading to Arrest of OneCoin Fraudster

Ruja Ignatova, the so-called “cryptoqueen,” has been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list and has been charged with a global cryptocurrency fraud scheme.

Ruja Ignatova, also known as the “Cryptoqueen,” is now part of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives after being indicted in a global cryptocurrency fraud scheme.

Ignatova and her associates are accused of soliciting investments through deceptive statements and misrepresentations around 2014. Investors were directed to transfer funds to OneCoin accounts to buy investment packages, resulting in large wire transfers. This scheme allegedly defrauded victims out of over $4 billion.

The State Department has labeled OneCoin “one of the largest global fraud schemes in history.” Cryptoqueen, a German national, faces criminal charges in Bulgaria, the United States, Germany, and India. Several of her former associates have already received prison sentences for their roles in the fraud.

Last year, Karl Greenwood, co-founder of OneCoin, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $300 million. Earlier this year, two lawyers connected to the scheme, Irina Dilkinska and Mark Scott, were sentenced to four and ten years in prison, respectively.

Cryptoqueen vanished shortly after her indictment in the U.S. in late 2017, last seen on a flight from Sofia to Athens. The FBI speculates she may have altered her appearance or is using a German passport to hide in the Middle East or Eastern Europe.

There are unverified rumors that she may have been murdered and dismembered on a yacht in the Ionian Sea in 2018, allegedly by order of a Bulgarian drug lord known as “Taki.”