The US authorities has elevated the reward for info relating to the whereabouts of OneCoin co-founder Ruja Ignatova to $5 million.
be Official Release A State Division spokesperson, in coordination with the US Embassy in Bulgaria, introduced a $5 million reward for info resulting in the arrest or conviction of Ignatova, often known as the CryptoQueen.
The brand new reward is a big enhance from the earlier $250,000 provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), sparking hypothesis concerning the veracity of rumors that the Crypto Queen was killed in 2018.
US places $5 million bounty on Cryptoqueen
The Crypto Queen is needed in the USA for masterminding one of many largest worldwide fraud schemes in historical past. Whereas a few of her co-conspirators have been arrested and sentenced for his or her crimes, she has been on the FBI’s 10 Most Wished record since 2022.
Crypto Queen, a 44-year-old Bulgarian-born German, co-founded OneCoin in 2014 and promoted the undertaking as a cryptocurrency funding by false statements and representations. As of 2017, Crypto Queen had defrauded traders out of over $4 billion utilizing a Ponzi scheme.
When investigators pursued her in late 2017, Ignatova fled Bulgaria for Greece to keep away from arrest and has been on the run ever since. US and German authorities have charged the OneCoin creator with fraud and cash laundering. Bulgarian authorities additionally plan to indict Ignatova quickly and start the method of seizing her illegally acquired property.
Alive or lifeless?
Because the manhunt for the Crypto Queen continues, rumors are circulating that she might have had beauty surgical procedure to change her look. She can be believed to journey with armed guards and associates. The FBI believes she could also be utilizing a German passport to go to nations such because the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Jap Europe.
Final yr, rumors surfaced that the Crypto Queen was murdered by Bulgarian drug lord Christoforos Amanatidis (aka Taki), who was additionally in control of her safety. Sources say that Taki ordered hitmen to dismember Ignatova’s physique and dump it within the Ionian Sea, in an try and sever her ties with the OneCoin rip-off.
Nonetheless, the BBC crew behind The Lacking Cryptoqueen podcast received Provided that there have been ideas concerning the Crypto Queen’s whereabouts since 2018 and a failed police operation to arrest her in Greece in 2022, the rumors of her dying could possibly be a ploy to mislead state authorities.
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