OneCoin Co-Founder Pleads Guilty To Wire Fraud And Money Laundering Charges

Karl Sebastian Greenwood, a cofounder of OneCoin, entered a guilty plea to charges of wire crypto fraud and money laundering, according to the Justice Department of the United States.

The authorities identified Greenwood as the head of the significant worldwide fraud schemes in a news release on December 16.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams commented on the situation and said OneCoin was useless and had no real-world value. The statement says, in part:

GREENWOOD and IGNATOVA conceived of and built the OneCoin business fully intending to use it to defraud investors.

Moreover, the guilty plea by Greenwood coincides with his co-ongoing founder’s disappearance in 2017. According to DOJ documents, Greenwood was OneCoin’s top MLM distributor and make almost €20 million monthly.

The charges carry a possible 20-year prison term. However, a sentence still needs to be given. The penalty is set to go into effect on April 5, 2023.

Additionally, In July 2018, Greenwood was detained in Thailand, and in October 2018, he was finally deported to the United States.

A multi-level marketing program called OneCoin was launches in 2014 in Bulgaria, allowing users to make money by signing up new members. But in 2016, when it started having trouble paying investors, OneCoin began to crumble as a Ponzi scam.

Moreover, the DOJ estimates that OneCoin generated sales revenues of around €4.04 billion and investor profits of an additional €2.74 billion.

The Untraceable Crypto Queen

Ruja “CryptoQueen” Ignatova, the second OneCoin cofounder, hasn’t been seen in some time.

Furthermore, Ignatova was added to Europol’s most wanted fugitives list in May, and a €5,000 reward is offered for information leading to her capture. According to Europol, Ignatova tricked investors into buying worthless cash.

She was a June addition to the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list maintained by the American FBI. For information that would result in her capture, the FBI would pay up to $100,000. Although law enforcement authorities are looking for her, Ignatova has been missing since October 2017.

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Additionally, the criminal mastermind may have even switched genders. This may be why it’s challenging for the authorities to find her, claims the article.