The US State Department has increased the reward for information leading to the arrest of OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova to $5 million.
A Bulgarian native with German citizenship has been on the FBI's ten most wanted criminals list since June 2022. Initially, the agency set a reward for assistance in her capture in the amount of $ 100,000. In May 2023, the amount increased to $250,000.
Ignatova's card notes that she may have changed her appearance with the help of plastic surgery and travels with armed guards
The entrepreneur, along with Carl Sebastian Greenwood, organized the OneCoin cryptocurrency company in 2014, which the State Department called "one of the largest global fraudulent schemes in history." It is estimated that the damage to investors worldwide exceeded $4 billion.
On October 12, 2017, Ignatova was charged in the court of the Southern District of New York with fraud using electronic means of communication and money laundering.
On October 25, 2017, the founder of OneCoin left Sofia for Athens to avoid arrest. Since then, her whereabouts have been unknown.
https://forklog.com/exclusive/skam-desyatiletiya-kak-doktor-yuridicheskih-nauk-organizovala-piramidu-onecoin-i-propala-bez-vesti-s-milliardami-evroIn February 2023, journalists of the BIRD project, citing Bulgarian police documents, reported Ignatova's death. The businesswoman was allegedly killed in November 2018 on a yacht in the Ionian Sea on the orders of Bulgarian drug lord Christoforos Nikos Amanatidis, known as Taki.
During the subsequent investigation, BBC journalists found out that law enforcement officers had established a connection between Taki and Ignatova even before her disappearance. Reporters have found new evidence of the version of her murder. The interviewed experts also considered such a development to be the most likely.
The State Department established a payment of $5 million for information about Ignatova as part of the Rewards Program for Combating Transnational Organized Crime (TOCRP). Launched in 2013, the initiative allows the US Secretary of State to award up to $25 million.
Recall that Greenwood was arrested in 2018 in Thailand. He subsequently pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering.
In September 2023, the court sentenced the OneCoin co-founder to 20 years in prison and a fine of $300 million.