
Ruja Ignatova, who prior to now dubbed herself the “Cryptoqueen,” is now sitting with a flowery crown in a brand new royal courtroom: the FBI’s top 10 most wanted.
FBI officers and federal prosecutors introduced Ignatova’s new designation in a press convention Thursday. Ignatova was charged in 2019 with wire fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit cash laundering for her half within the OneCoin crypto company that prosecutors alleged was only a ponzi scheme.
Michael Driscoll, the FBI’s assistant director-in-charge for New York declined to reply Reuters’ questions whether or not they had any leads, however mentioned Ignatova “left with a tremendous amount of cash,” including, “money can buy a lot of friends.”
Ignatova was a part of a Bulgaria-based crypto firm known as OneCoin. The firm claimed they have been performing an everyday crypto mining operation—producing new tokens added to a blockchain—and pumped out $3.78 billion in income from the tip of 2014 to the center of 2016. But regardless of the upward momentum, investigators from the U.S. Department of Justice reported that OneCoin’s worth was rigged internally, that the cash have been basically nugatory, and customers couldn’t even hint possession of the cash. The DOJ alleged these on the head of the corporate made almost $2.5 billion in revenue that they squirreled away in firm financial institution accounts.
Damian Williams, the U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of New York, instructed reporters Ignatova capitalized “on the frenzied speculation of the early days of cryptocurrency.”
In an FBI-provided video of Ignatova talking at a London firm occasion dated June, 2016, Ignatova boasted about her two million energetic customers, including “no other cryptocurrency has as many users as we do,”
Bloomberg reported that after Ignatov grew suspicious that the feds have been onto her, she fled to Greece after which investigators misplaced monitor of her.
In 2019, the U.S. unsealed an indictment in opposition to Ignatov, charging her with the beforehand talked about litany of monetary crimes. That similar 12 months, Konstantin Ignatova, one among OneCoin’s founders and Ruja’s brother, was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Konstantin managed to get a plea deal, and although his sentencing was set for May 13, his attorneys adjourned the date for 90 days so he may additional cooperate with authorities.
The Cryptoqueen has evaded police custody and stays at giant to today. So, the FBI says it’ll pay as much as a $100,000 reward for any data that results in an arrest.
In addition, U.S. prosecutors previously convicted former company lawyer Mark Scott of conspiracy to commit cash laundering and conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud for laundering round $400 million for the corporate. Ruja Ignatov testified against Scott at his trial. Scott is contesting his responsible verdict by claiming Ruja lied on the stand, in response to Bloomberg.
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https://gizmodo.com/cryptoqueen-lands-a-spot-on-the-fbis-most-wanted-list-1849131003