US Increases Reward for Information on OneCoin Founder to $5 Million

The US Department of State has raised the reward to $5 million for information leading to the arrest of OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova.

The Bulgarian-born German citizen has been on the FBI’s list of ten most wanted fugitives since June 2022. Initially, the agency set the reward for her capture at $100,000. In May 2023, the amount was increased to $250,000.

Ignatova’s profile notes that she may have altered her appearance through plastic surgery and travels with armed guards.

Together with Karl Sebastian Greenwood, the entrepreneur founded the cryptocurrency company OneCoin in 2014, which the State Department described as “one of the largest global fraudulent schemes in history.” The estimated damage to investors worldwide exceeded $4 billion.

On October 12, 2017, Ignatova was charged in the Southern District of New York with wire fraud and money laundering.

On October 25, 2017, the OneCoin founder left Sofia for Athens to evade arrest. Her whereabouts have been unknown since then.

In February 2023, journalists from the BIRD project, citing Bulgarian police documents, reported Ignatova’s death. The entrepreneur was allegedly killed in November 2018 on a yacht in the Ionian Sea on the orders of Bulgarian drug lord Christoforos Nikos Amanatidis, known as Taki.

BBC journalists, in a subsequent investigation, discovered that law enforcement had established a connection between Taki and Ignatova before her disappearance. Reporters found new evidence supporting the murder theory. Experts interviewed also considered this scenario most likely.

The $5 million reward for information on Ignatova was set by the State Department under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP). Launched in 2013, the initiative allows the US Secretary of State to offer rewards of up to $25 million.

Earlier, Greenwood was arrested in 2018 in Thailand. He later pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering.

In September 2023, a court sentenced the OneCoin co-founder to 20 years in prison and a $300 million fine.