Co-founder of $4 billion crypto fraud scheme gets 20 years in prison, 'Cryptoqueen' partner remains
Also: Co-Founder Of Multibillion-Dollar Cryptocurrency Scheme “OneCoin” Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison (U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York)
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Source: CNBC
Co-founder of $4 billion crypto fraud scheme gets 20 years in prison, ‘Cryptoqueen’ partner remains at large
PUBLISHED TUE, SEP 12 20233:55 PM EDTUPDATED TUE, SEP 12 20235:57 PM EDT
Kevin Breuninger
@KEVINWILLIAMB
• Karl Greenwood, co-founder of the fraudulent OneCoin cryptocurrency, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
• His partner, Ruja Ignatova, known as the “Cryptoqueen” on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list, remains at large.
• The massive pyramid scheme amassed more than $4 billion from millions of victims worldwide, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The co-founder of the fraudulent OneCoin cryptocurrency, a massive pyramid scheme that amassed more than $4 billion from millions of investors worldwide, was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison.
Karl Greenwood, 46, who orchestrated the multibillion-dollar multilevel marketing con, pleaded guilty in December to wire fraud and money laundering charges.
His partner, Ruja Ignatova, 43, known as the “Cryptoqueen” on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list, remains at large, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
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Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/12/cryptoqueen-partner-gets-20-years-prison-in-4-billion-ponzi-fraud.html
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Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York
Co-Founder Of Multibillion-Dollar Cryptocurrency Scheme “OneCoin” Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison
OneCoin Was a Fraudulent Cryptocurrency Marketed and Sold to Millions of Victims Around the World, Resulting in Billions of Dollars in Losses
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that KARL SEBASTIAN GREENWOOD, who co-founded OneCoin with RUJA IGNATOVA, a/k/a “the Cryptoqueen,” was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his orchestration of the massive OneCoin fraud scheme. OneCoin, which began operations in 2014 and was based in Sofia, Bulgaria, marketed and sold a fraudulent cryptocurrency by the same name through a global multi-level-marketing (“MLM”) network. As a result of misrepresentations that GREENWOOD, IGNATOVA, and others made about OneCoin, millions of victims invested over $4 billion worldwide in the fraudulent cryptocurrency. Today’s sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos. IGNATOVA, who was added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (“FBI”) Top Ten Most Wanted List in June 2022, remains at large.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “As a founder and leader of OneCoin, Karl Sebastian Greenwood operated one of the largest fraud schemes ever perpetrated. Greenwood and his co-conspirators, including fugitive Ruja Ignatova, conned unsuspecting victims out of billions of dollars with promises of a ‘financial revolution’ and claims that OneCoin would be the ‘Bitcoin killer.’ In fact, OneCoins were entirely worthless, and investors were left with nothing, while Greenwood lined his own pockets with over $300 million. We hope this lengthy sentence resonates in the financial sector and deters anyone who may be tempted to lie to investors and exploit the cryptocurrency ecosystem through fraud.”
According to public court filings and statements made in Court:
GREENWOOD and IGNATOVA co-founded OneCoin Ltd. (“OneCoin”) in 2014. OneCoin was based in Sofia, Bulgaria. OneCoin marketed and sold a fraudulent cryptocurrency by the same name. OneCoin began operating in the United States in or around 2015. Between the fourth quarter of 2014 and the fourth quarter of 2016 alone, the scheme took in more than $4 billion from at least 3.5 million victims.
OneCoin marketed its fake cryptocurrency through a global MLM network of OneCoin members. GREENWOOD conceived of OneCoin’s use of an MLM structure and was OneCoin’s global master distributor and the leader of the MLM network through which the fraudulent cryptocurrency was marketed and sold. Through the MLM structure, OneCoin members received commissions for recruiting others to purchase cryptocurrency packages. As the top MLM distributor of OneCoin, GREENWOOD earned 5% of monthly OneCoin sales from anywhere in the world, which totaled more than $200 million from the fourth quarter of 2014 through the fourth quarter of 2016 alone and exceeded approximately $300 million in total. GREENWOOD’s mastery as a salesman and the use of the MLM structure helped contribute to OneCoin’s rapid growth and incredible success.
From OneCoin’s inception, GREENWOOD and IGNATOVA used the notoriety of Bitcoin to convince investors that OneCoin was the next “can’t miss” investment opportunity. GREENWOOD and IGNATOVA wanted investors to believe that OneCoin was a legitimate cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and deliberately drew the comparison between the two cryptocurrencies through their representations to investors and their marketing materials. For example, in a OneCoin PowerPoint presentation prepared by GREENWOOD, OneCoin described itself as “a unique and innovative cryptocurrency, that is born on the success of the pioneering and famous cryptocoin, Bitcoin.” In another slide, OneCoin highlighted the explosive growth of Bitcoin, stating that “Bitcoins increased their value 75 times in 2013,” and including the following quote from The Guardian newspaper, “Man buys $27 of bitcoin, forgets that he had bought and finds that they’re now worth $886,000.”
In reality, unlike legitimate cryptocurrencies, OneCoin had no actual value and was conceived of by GREENWOOD and IGNATOVA as a fraud from day one.
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Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/co-founder-multibillion-dollar-cryptocurrency-scheme-onecoin-sentenced-20-years-prison
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