The United States is offering up to $5 million as a reward for anyone who comes forward with information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of the fugitive Ruja Ignatova, the alleged cryptocurrency fraudster who has been missing since 2017.
Ignatova was indicted in the U.S. in October 2017 for her alleged role in the OneCoin digital currency scam, which is believed to have defrauded victims of more than $4 billion.
She was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List in 2022, with the bureau at that time offering a reward of up to $250,000 for information leading to her arrest.
On Wednesday, the State Department announced that the reward was being increased to up to $5 million as part of the department’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program. The identity of the recipients of these rewards is protected if revealing them might put the individuals at risk.
Within weeks of the 2017 indictment, Ignatova is said to have fled from Bulgaria to Greece following a tip-off from corrupt law enforcement officials. After the FBI posted the reward in 2022, it warned: “She may travel on a German passport to the United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria, Germany, Russia, Greece and/or Eastern Europe.”
The scam and Ingatova’s disappearance rose to worldwide attention following a BBC podcast series titled The Missing Cryptoqueen, first broadcast in 2019 followed by a book in 2022. Other OneCoin employees have been sentenced to prison in the U.S. in the case.
Last year, an investigative journalism publication in Bulgaria reported gossip recorded by police from an informant claiming that Ignatova had been murdered back in 2018 by a notorious Bulgarian drugs importer in order to conceal his own involvement in the scam.
The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast interviewed an FBI special agent in 2022 who said the bureau was continuing to investigate the case under the assumption she was still alive.
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