The U.S. government recently announced a reward of up to $5 million for any information leading to the arrest of OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova.
This development comes as Bulgarian and U.S. authorities are conducting a joint investigation into a large-scale financial fraud and money laundering scheme.
Bulgaria’s interim chief prosecutor Borislav Sarafov emphasized the cooperative efforts of Bulgarian and U.S. law enforcement agencies in handling the case. Sarafov highlighted the investigation into Ignatova, who is facing charges related to the notorious OneCoin financial pyramid scheme.
Additionally, Sarafov revealed plans to file legal proceedings in Bulgaria aimed at charging Ignatova in absentia and facilitating the seizure of assets obtained through illegal means.
U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten underscored the severity of the charges against Ignatova, calling the OneCoin scheme one of the largest frauds in history, with victims allegedly defrauded of over $4 billion.
Plamen Tonchev, the director of the Bulgarian National Security Agency (SANS), outlined Ignatova’s role in the OneCoin scheme, labeling it as a “fraudulent financial operation” similar to a pyramid scheme.
The rise and fall of OneCoin
The story of OneCoin dates back to 2014, when Ruja Ignatova founded the company, claiming its functionality was similar to any other cryptocurrency. However, it was revealed that there was no real OneCoin blockchain model or payment system.
As issues and investigations began to arise in multiple countries, some referred to it as a Ponzi scheme, leading to the credibility of OneCoin to crumble.
In March 2016, the Norwegian Direct Selling Association was the first to condemn the fraud as a Ponzi scheme, and in May of the same year, the Hungarian Central Bank issued a warning.
In 2017, OneCoin falsely claimed to be the first company authorized by the Vietnamese government to operate as a digital currency, a claim that Vietnam immediately refuted. The following year, Bulgarian authorities raided OneCoin’s offices, leading to Ignatova’s disappearance upon the issuance of an arrest warrant.
Ignatova’s brother Konstantin Ignatov subsequently assumed leadership of the company, and co-founder Sebastian Greenwood was arrested in 2018. Konstantin himself was arrested in November 2019 and later admitted to fraud and money laundering charges.
Since fleeing from Sofia to Athens in 2017 to evade arrest, Ignatova has been on the run and was listed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in 2022.
The cryptocurrency total market capitalization chart shows $2.1 trillion. Source: TOTAL on TradingView.com.
