A $5 million (£4 million) reward is being offered in the search for fugitive “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova.
Ignatova, born in Bulgaria and with German citizenship, has been on the FBI’s most wanted list since 2022 for fraud and money laundering.
The 43-year-old is accused of defrauding investors of $4bn (£3.3bn) by selling a fake cryptocurrency called OneCoin, founded in Sofia in 2014.
The US agency, which has called OneCoin “one of the largest global fraud schemes in history”, previously offered a $100,000 (£82,463) reward for his capture.
However, that figure has now risen to £4m.
“Ignatova is believed to be traveling with armed guards and/or associates. Ignatova may have undergone plastic surgery or otherwise altered her appearance,” her FBI wanted poster states.
Meanwhile, BulgariaUkraine’s chief prosecutor said Wednesday he would file charges against Ignatova, who disappeared in late 2017.
“She will also be charged in absentia in our country, which will allow a procedure to be initiated for the confiscation of her illegally acquired assets,” he stated.
The FBI believes he could be using a German passport to travel to countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Greece and Eastern Europe.
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Ignatova’s last known movements were taking a Ryanair flight from Sofia to Athens on October 25, 2017.
She fled after bugging an apartment belonging to her American boyfriend and learning he was cooperating with the FBI, according to prosecutors.
When added it to the most wanted listThe FBI said it believed she escaped with a “tremendous amount of cash,” enough to “buy many friends.”
There has also been speculation that she may have been murdered on the orders of the ‘godfather’ of the Bulgarian mafia.
OneCoin co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the United States last year and ordered to repay $300 million (£237 million).
The fake cryptocurrency raised huge amounts using a pyramid scheme model that offered commissions to members to entice others to participate.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
