The reward for information leading to the capture of OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova has been increased by the United States Department of State. The State Department’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program has raised the reward to $5 million for any information that results in Ignatova’s arrest and conviction. Ignatova was last confirmed to be in Athens in October 2017.
The FBI added Ignatova to its top ten list in June 2022, offering a reward of $100,000. This reward was later increased to $250,000 in 2023, but Ignatova remains at large. The FBI has reported that she holds a German passport and may have undergone plastic surgery or altered her appearance.
In 2017, Ignatova was charged with fraud and money laundering by U.S. authorities, who issued a federal warrant for her arrest. In June 2022, it was announced that she would be charged in absentia in Bulgaria. OneCoin, the cryptocurrency scheme founded in 2014, was exposed as a fraudulent operation in 2015, defrauding investors of approximately $4 billion. Several individuals involved in the scheme, including Ignatova’s boyfriend Gilbert Armenta, lawyer Mark Scott, former head of legal and compliance Irina Dilkinska, co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood, and William Morro, have been criminally prosecuted in the U.S.
Ignatova’s brother, Konstantin Ignatov, pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges in 2019 in connection with the OneCoin scheme. He served 34 months in prison before being released in March 2024.