The US State Department has increased attempts to apprehend Ruja Ignatova, dubbed the “Cryptoqueen,” who went missing in Athens in 2017, offering a $5 million prize through its Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program.
On Wednesday, the State Department announced a new incentive under its Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program, which will enhance the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) existing $250,000 award.
Ruja Ignatova, who has been on the FBI’s Most Wanted list since 2022, is facing an in absentia indictment in Bulgaria for allegedly leading the $4 billion OneCoin crypto Ponzi scheme, which duped global investors from 2014 until it collapsed in early 2017.
OneCoin operated via a network of promoters that solicited investments by giving tokens that had no genuine cryptocurrency backing and were not on any blockchain. Ruja Ignatova and her team artificially inflated the perceived value of OneCoin by automatically creating new coins.
The State Department described OneCoin as “one of the largest global fraud schemes in history,” and it misled investors globally from 2014 until its collapse in early 2017.
Ignatova, a German national, is facing criminal allegations in Bulgaria, the United States, Germany, and India. Several former Ignatova associates have been sentenced to prison for their involvement in the fraud.
Last year, Karl Greenwood, co-founder of OneCoin, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to surrender $300 million. Earlier this year, two of the scheme’s lawyers, Bulgarian Irina Dilkinska and American Mark Scott received four and ten-year prison sentences, respectively.
Ruja Ignatova disappeared shortly after being indicted in the U.S. in late 2017, last seen on a flight from Sofia, Bulgaria to Athens. The FBI has speculated she may have altered her appearance through plastic surgery or is using a German passport in the Middle East or Eastern Europe.
There have been unverified rumors, including a Bulgarian media report from 2023, suggesting she may have been murdered and dismembered on a yacht in the Ionian Sea in 2018, allegedly at the order of a Bulgarian drug lord known as “Taki.”
Also Read: OneCoin Scheme Associate Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison
