OneCoin’s “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova added to FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List

The FBI has announced that Ruja Ignatova (a.k.a “Cryptoqueen”) has been added to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitive list over the OneCoin Ponzi scheme defrauding investors of billions of dollars.

In 2014, Ignatova founded OneCoin, a Bulgaria-based company that was touted to be the “Bitcoin killer”.

Taking advantage of the excitement over cryptocurrencies, Ignatova made false statements to draw in investors to invest in OneCoin packages and subsequently sell additional packages to friends a family.

OneCoin was then realized to be a Ponzi scheme defrauding victims of over USD 4PHP 235INR 339EUR 4CNY 29 billion all over the world.

By 2017, a federal warrant was issued for Ignatova’s arrest. The FBI stated that Ignatova may have been given a tip over her charges and had since traveled to Bulgaria and Greece but has not been seen since.

In 2018, law enforcement charged Ignatova with one count each of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

“OneCoin claimed to have a private blockchain. This is in contrast to other virtual currencies, which have a decentralized and public blockchain. In this case, investors were just asked to trust OneCoin.”

“There are so many victims all over the world who were financially devastated by this. We want to bring her to justice.”

– Ronald Shimko, FBI New York Special Agent

The FBI is currently offering an award of up to USD 100,000PHP 5,868,550INR 8,474,980EUR 95,230CNY 727,830 for information leading to Ignatova’s arrest.

Ignatova is currently 42 years old with brown eyes and dark brown hair, but investigators have reason to believe she may have altered her physical appearance.

Tips regarding Ignatova can be reported anonymously online at tips.fbi.gov.