US State Department bumps up reward to $5 million for info leading to OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova's arrest

The U.S. Department of State has bumped its reward offer to $5 million for information leading to OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova's arrest, who has not been seen since 2017.

Ignatova, also nicknamed "Crypto Queen," was added to the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted List in June 2022 and previously had a reward set at $100,000. Ignatova may have had plastic surgery to change her appearance and could be traveling with guards, according to her FBI poster .

Ignatova founded OneCoin with Karl Sebastian Greenwood in 2014, which the State Department has called "one of the largest global fraud schemes in history" — defrauding investors of more than $4 billion. Greenwood was arrested in Thailand in 2018, charged with fraud and money laundering and extradited to the U.S. This past year, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined $300 million.

Ignatova was charged in 2017 with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Two weeks after being charged, Ignatova went to Greece to avoid being arrested, the State Department said in a statement on Wednesday.

OneCoin marketed its cryptocurrency through a global multi-level marketing network, which prosecutors said helped contribute to its growth. Prosecutors say Greenwood and Ignatova wanted investors to believe OneCoin was comparable to Bitcoin and often drew comparisons between the two.

The new $5 million award was authorized by the Department of State's Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program, an effort created in 2013 that helps law enforcement block international crime and allows the Secretary of State to offer rewards of up to $25 million.