Ruja Ignatova, mastermind of the infamous pyramid Onecoin, is now one among Europe’s most needed fugitives. Also referred to as the “Crypto Queen,” she disappeared nearly 5 years in the past, after the Ponzi scheme she led collected billions of {dollars} from defrauded buyers all over the world.
Europol Seeks Information on Onecoin Inventor’s Whereabouts
The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, Europol, is now providing a reward of as much as €5,000 ($5,200) for any info that would result in the arrest of Ruja Ignatova, suspected of masterminding one of many largest scams in crypto historical past, Onecoin.
The announcement describes Ignatova, a physician of regulation, because the “driving force and intellectual inventor of the alleged cryptocurrency Onecoin.” She is suspected of inducing buyers everywhere in the world to place cash into “this actually worthless ‘currency’,” Europol notes.
The company additionally factors out that the fraud-related losses to the Ponzi scheme which have been established to date are within the higher double-digit million vary, whereas additionally acknowledging that the full injury brought on on a worldwide scale is more likely to quantity to a number of billion U.S. {dollars}. Europol explains:
The needed individual’s whereabouts have been unknown since 25 October 2017, and he or she has not appeared in public since this date, neither in reference to OneCoin nor in any other case.
Ignatova has been accused of “fraud, including that affecting the financial interests of the European Communities within the meaning of the Convention of 26 July 1995.” The promised reward is meant just for personal people that present essential details about her location and never for officers prosecuting legal offenses.
The Crypto Queen has been added to Europe’s Most Wanted checklist on the initiative of the German regulation enforcement authorities. According to an announcement revealed by the police within the western German province of North Rhine-Westphalia, the €5,000 reward has been supplied by the general public prosecutor’s workplace in Bielefeld.
Onecoin was launched by Bulgarian-born German nationwide Ruja Ignatova in 2014. The challenge’s cryptocurrency was marketed because the “Bitcoin killer” and promoted via Bulgaria-based offshore entities Onecoin Ltd., registered in Dubai, and the Belize-incorporated Onelife Network Ltd. Both had been based by Ignatova and her accomplice Sebastian Greenwood, who’s now jailed within the U.S.
Ruja’s brother, Konstantin Ignatov, who can also be a co-founder of Onecoin, was arrested in Los Angeles in 2019 and charged with committing monetary crimes. He has since began cooperating with investigators engaged on the case, testified about Onecoin’s hyperlinks to organized crime, pleaded responsible, and sought witness safety.
In November, a lawyer representing buyers urged Bulgaria to behave on the case, claiming the rip-off was nonetheless working from the nation. In a petition with the Bulgarian ombudsman, Jonathan Levy accused officers of failing to supply justice to the victims. He additionally alleged that the Ignatovs and Onecoin entities had been nonetheless accountable for property, crypto property, and fiat funds exceeding €12.5 billion (over $13 billion).
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Lubomir Tassev
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