Charge within the Onecoin scandal: disappeared “crypto queen” is alleged to be in courtroom | EUROtoday

She is among the most needed ladies on the earth: Ruja Ignatova, a German citizen of Bulgarian origin. As a self -proclaimed “crypto queen”, she is alleged to have betrayed 3.5 million traders around the globe by 4 billion euros ($ 4.3 billion). The US Federal Agency FBI has marketed Ignatova Global for looking and awarded a reward for clues that result in captivation.

However, there was no hint of Ignatova, who ought to now be 45 years previous. At that point she was final seen on the airport in Athens. Quite a couple of suppose that the lawyer and administration marketing consultant has lengthy since been lifeless.

After lengthy investigations, the Bielefeld public prosecutor’s workplace raised expenses within the absence of Ignatova a couple of days in the past. In the greater than 600-page indictment, the regulation enforcement officers of the OneCoin founder accuse industrial fraud on 17,552 victims from throughout Germany and a few EU international locations. In addition, she is meant to reply for the allegation of cash laundering. The public prosecutor was restricted to round 35,000 cost transactions within the interval between the top of 2015 and August 2016. When requested, a spokesman put the injury at round 57 million euros.

In the case of OneCoin, traders had been pretended to spend money on a cryptocurrency based mostly on blockchain know-how. In reality, they largely purchased collectively copied instructing supplies as regards to securities buying and selling on the Internet. OneCoin packages might be bought from 100 euros, but additionally value six-digit quantities. There had been additionally tokens that must be created and acted by onecoins, however provided that to procure extra as a begin bundle.

With the gathering of the indictment and a doable opening resolution by the Bielefeld District Court, the statute of limitations for the accused acts might be interrupted. As a end result, the investigators would have as much as 5 extra years to seek for Ignatova and the largely disappeared cash from the traders.

So far, the State Criminal Police Office Düsseldorf has been in a position to safe virtually 28 million euros. In a felony proceedings concluded earlier than the Münster district courtroom in opposition to two former gross sales workers from Ignatova and a lawyer, 70 million euros had been collected.

In her authentic house in Bulgaria, an indictment in opposition to Ignatova has been out there since summer time 2024. This made it doable for the nationwide authorities to confiscate the present belongings of the previous Onecoin boss in coordination with the FBI. “In our country, it is also charged in absence what enables the initiation of a procedure to collect her illegally acquired assets,” mentioned Attorney General Borislav Sarafov of the “Reuters” information company.

There had been additionally judgments in America within the crypto scandal: At the start of 2019, Ignatova was convicted of securities and telecommunications fraud and cash laundering in New York. In September 2023, a jury condemned the OneCoin co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood for 20 years in jail.

German investigators are additionally all for Greenwood, however it’s extremely unlikely that it is going to be delivered to Germany and a felony trial in opposition to him. In February 2024, the US judiciary sentenced the previous head of OneCoin’s authorized and compliance division to 4 years in jail.