America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has added Onecoin’s foremost crypto queen and founder Ruja Ignatova to the wanted list of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives for the role she played in defrauding unsuspecting investors of more than $4 Billion worth of crypto assets.

This action was confirmed in New York by the FBI with the support of the United States Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York and the IRS Criminal Investigation Newark Field Office. The FBI has also put up a $100,000 reward for any information that will lead to her capture.

Ignatova was first indicted in October 2017 by a federal jury with a warrant for her arrest issued around the same time by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The crypto queen was charged with one count of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, one count to commit wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud in a superseding indictment handed down in February 2018.

Investigators believe she has been involved in fraudulent operations of a significant scope beginning way back in 2014 and estimated to the tune of billions of dollars.

She was the brains behind the scam OneCoin project which she allegedly promoted as a cryptocurrency. She proceeded in her deception by making false claims and promises about her OneCoin investment opportunities.

After this, she urged investors to move their investment amounts to OneCoin accounts to earn investment rewards and buy OneCoin packages. The unsuspecting victims did so and lost more than $4 Billion to this fraud to she stepped down as Onecoin’s leader in October 2017.

In March 2019, she was arrested by the FBI in the USA for running a pyramid scheme after which she was sued for multi-billion dollar fraud in May by a former investor. In May 2022, she was declared wanted by INTERPOL for money laundering and fraud.

Featured image source: Cryptopolitan