‘Crypto Queen,’ OneCoin scammer behind $4 billion fraud

The FBI has added Ruja Ignatova, known as the “crypto Queen,” to its list of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives for allegedly defrauding millions of investors out of more than $4 billion through the cryptocurrency business she founded called OneCoin.

The Bulgarian woman vanished in Greece in October 2017 just before US officials issued a sealed indictment and arrest order for her, prompting the Federal Bureau of Investigation to offer a $100,000 reward in their search for her.

Launch of OneCoin in 2014

OneCoin was introduced by Ignatova in 2014 with the stated goal of dethroning Bitcoin as the most popular virtual currency worldwide. OneCoin was active throughout the world, including the US, and once reported having at least three million investors.

For almost two years, millions of individuals invested money in it. She reassured them that OneCoin will have value in addition to bitcoin. She used to conduct numerous workshops on this. She was featured as ad news in numerous large periodicals. People kept responding to these advertisements, taking them for real news.

She and her accomplices made at least $3.4 billion and possibly over $4 billion from the third quarter of 2016 to the fourth quarter of 2014 by using a global network to market the coin to friends and family in exchange for their own payouts. However, the coin had no real value and could not be used to purchase anything.

Reportedly, OneCoin was not backed by any secured, independent blockchain-type technology as other cryptocurrencies are.

OneCoin was a typical Ponzi scheme, where the early investors are rewarded with receipts from the later investors and pushed to recruit more.

In 2019, the US unveiled an indictment against her, accusing her of securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiring to launder money.