Damian Williams, the highest federal prosecutor in Manhattan, speaks at a press convention to announce the addition of “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova to the FBI’s most-wanted fugitives checklist, in New York, June 30, 2022.
Luc Cohen | Reuters
The co-founder of the fraudulent OneCoin cryptocurrency, an enormous pyramid scheme that amassed over $4 billion from tens of millions of buyers worldwide, was sentenced Tuesday to twenty years in jail.
Karl Greenwood, 46, who orchestrated the multibillion-dollar multi-level advertising con, pleaded responsible in December to wire fraud and cash laundering prices.
His accomplice, Ruja Ignatova, 43, often known as the “Cryptoqueen” on the FBI’s High 10 Most Needed checklist, stays at massive, the Division of Justice mentioned.
Greenwood “operated one of many largest fraud schemes ever perpetrated,” U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams mentioned in a press launch.
“We hope this prolonged sentence resonates within the monetary sector and deters anybody who could also be tempted to misinform buyers and exploit the cryptocurrency ecosystem by fraud,” Williams mentioned.
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Greenwood’s sentence was imposed by federal Choose Edgardo Ramos in U.S. District Court docket in decrease Manhattan.
OneCoin, which started in Bulgaria in 2014, took in additional than $4 billion from no less than 3.5 million folks between 2014 and 2016, the DOJ mentioned. The scheme was marketed and offered by a multi-level advertising construction, which paid fee to OneCoin members who recruited others to purchase crypto packages.
Greenwood, the highest distributor, obtained 5% of all OneCoin gross sales — raking in additional than $300 million in whole, the DOJ mentioned.
Each Greenwood and Ignatova constantly portrayed OneCoin as being the subsequent Bitcoin-like crypto funding alternative. However “not like reputable cryptocurrencies, OneCoin had no precise worth and was conceived of by Greenwood and Ignatova as a fraud from day one,” the DOJ mentioned.
The co-founders and others lied repeatedly to their buyers, together with by claiming that OneCoin’s worth was decided by market forces when, in actuality, its value was set “arbitrarily,” authorities mentioned.
Ignatova was charged in October 2017 on counts associated to fraud and cash laundering. Days after a federal warrant was issued for her arrest, Ignatova flew from Bulgaria to Athens, Greece.
She “has not been seen publicly since,” the DOJ mentioned.
The FBI is providing a reward of as much as $250,000 for data resulting in Ignatova’s arrest, in line with her web page on the company’s High 10 Most Needed Fugitives checklist.
Her needed poster says that she is “believed to journey with armed guards and/or associates,” and “might have had cosmetic surgery or in any other case altered her look.”