The U.S. State Department is offering a $5 million U.S. reward for information that leads to the arrest of Ruja Ignatova, the self-proclaimed “Cryptoqueen” who has been missing since 2017.
The new reward is a substantial increase from a previous reward of $250,000 U.S. that was offered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Ignatova has been on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list since 2022.
A native of Bulgaria, Ignatova is the former founder of OneCoin, a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that stole $4 billion U.S. from investors between 2014 and its collapse in 2017.
OneCoin operated through a network of promoters, who solicited investments in return for a promise of cryptocurrency tokens.
However, there were no actual cryptocurrencies and OneCoin never operated on a blockchain. Ignatova and her team manipulated and lied about the perceived value of the phantom tokens.
In announcing the $5 million U.S. reward, the State Department called OneCoin “one of the largest global fraud schemes in history.”
Ignatova, who is a German national, faces criminal charges in the U.S., Germany, India and Bulgaria.
Several of Ignatova’s former OneCoin associates have already been sentenced to prison terms for their roles in the Ponzi scheme.
Ignatova went missing shortly after being indicted in the U.S. in 2017. She was last seen on an airline flight from Sofia, Bulgaria to Athens, Greece.
The FBI has suggested that Ignatova may have altered her appearance with plastic surgery.
There are rumors online that Ignatova may have been killed by her organized crime associates.
