TechFlow news — On June 26, according to Coindesk, the U.S. Department of State announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of Ruja Ignatova, founder of OneCoin and known as the "Crypto Queen." This bounty is part of the State Department's Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program and replaces the previous $250,000 reward offered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Ruja Ignatova has been placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list due to her involvement in a cryptocurrency-based Ponzi scheme. She has been at large since disappearing in Athens in 2017. OneCoin defrauded global investors of approximately $4 billion through a multi-level marketing investment scam, despite having no actual blockchain technology. In addition to being tried in absentia in Bulgaria, Ignatova faces criminal charges in the United States, Germany, and India. Several former OneCoin associates have already been sentenced, including co-founder Karl Greenwood, who received a 20-year prison sentence and forfeiture of $300 million, while lawyers Irina Dilkinska and Mark Scott were sentenced to four and ten years in prison, respectively.
