‘Cryptoqueen’ Associate Receives 20 Years in Prison, Ordered To Surrender $300,000,000

One of the co-founders of the $4 billion OneCoin crypto pyramid scheme has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Karl Sebastian Greenwood co-founded the infamous fraud with Ruja Ignatova, widely known as the “Cryptoqueen.”

Greenwood and Ignatova started OneCoin in 2014 and operated the company as a multi-level marketing (MLM) network. They falsely claimed the project maintained a private blockchain, and the fraud reportedly lured in more than 3.5 million victims.

Greenwood, a citizen of the United Kingdom and Sweden, was also ordered to pay more than $300 million worth of forfeiture, according to a new press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Ignatova, the leader of the scam, has been a fugitive since 2017 and was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list in 2022. A February report from BIRD, a Bulgarian investigative journalism outlet, indicated she may have been murdered at the order of known drug lord Hristoforos ‘Taki’ Amanatidis.

BIRD cited documents found at the home of a former top Bulgarian police officer, Lyubomir Ivanov, after he was murdered last year. However, the report’s information is not authenticated and the details about Ignatova’s death remain the subject of speculation.

The FBI says it will pay out a $100,000 reward for information leading to Ignatova’s arrest.

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