Damian Williams, the highest federal prosecutor in Manhattan, speaks at a press conference to announce the addition of “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova to the FBI’s most-wanted fugitives list, in Latest York, June 30, 2022.
Luc Cohen | Reuters
The co-founder of the fraudulent OneCoin cryptocurrency, an enormous pyramid scheme that amassed greater than $4 billion from thousands and thousands of investors worldwide, was sentenced Tuesday to twenty years in prison.
Karl Greenwood, 46, who orchestrated the multibillion-dollar multilevel marketing con, pleaded guilty in December to wire fraud and money laundering charges.
His partner, Ruja Ignatova, 43, often called the “Cryptoqueen” on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list, stays at large, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Greenwood “operated one in all the biggest fraud schemes ever perpetrated,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a press release.
“We hope this lengthy sentence resonates within the financial sector and deters anyone who could also be tempted to mislead investors and exploit the cryptocurrency ecosystem through fraud,” Williams said.
Greenwood’s sentence was imposed by federal Judge Edgardo Ramos in U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan.
OneCoin, which began in Bulgaria in 2014, took in greater than $4 billion from a minimum of 3.5 million people between 2014 and 2016, the DOJ said. The scheme was marketed and sold through a multilevel marketing structure, which paid commission to OneCoin members who recruited others to purchase crypto packages.
Greenwood, the highest distributor, received 5% of all OneCoin sales, raking in greater than $300 million in total, the DOJ said.
Each Greenwood and Ignatova consistently portrayed OneCoin as being the following Bitcoin-like crypto investment opportunity. But “unlike legitimate cryptocurrencies, OneCoin had no actual value and was conceived of by Greenwood and Ignatova as a fraud from day one,” the DOJ said.
The co-founders and others lied repeatedly to their investors, including by claiming that OneCoin’s value was determined by market forces when, in point of fact, its price was set “arbitrarily,” authorities said.
Ignatova was charged in October 2017 on counts related to fraud and money 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 said.
The FBI is offering a reward of as much as $250,000 for information resulting in Ignatova’s arrest, based on her page on the agency’s Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list.
Her wanted poster says that she is “believed to travel with armed guards and/or associates,” and “could have had cosmetic surgery or otherwise altered her appearance.”