Three Associates Of The Cryptoqueen Appear In Court Over The $4 Billion Scam.

Ruja Ignatova or better known as “Cryptoqueen” is currently on the run after an estimated $4 billion scam. Three of her associates appeared in a German court on charges of money laundering, fraud and banking crimes.

A Massive Scam

OneCoin was founded in 2014 by Ruja Ignatova and was billed as a cryptocurrency project. However, OneCoin soon turned out to be a scam based on the Ponzi scheme. Indeed, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) became aware of this, as the company was attracting new customers with fictitious methods such as non-existent token mining.

In total, no less than 3 million OneCoin users are affected. The FBI estimates the scam to be worth $4 billion. Prosecutors at the German court said: ' In reality, the ever-increasing value was skewed and the mining process was only simulated by software .'

Today, the Crypto Queen is listed among the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives. Anyone giving information leading to her capture will receive a $100,000 reward. In addition to facing charges of money laundering and fraud, Ignatova's company is also being prosecuted for aggravated bribery. Indeed, OneCoin would have tried to bribe the presidents of Bulgaria and Serbia. These revelations were made by economist and staunch cryptocurrency advocate Angelina Lazar.

The fact that the Crypto Queen is still untraceable arouses curiosity. Journalist Jamie Bartlett, who hosts a podcast on the BBC, has dedicated an 11-episode series to the fugitive.

The journalist has also released a book that summarizes the Crypto Queen affair in detail. It's called ' Missing Cryptoqueen: The Billion Dollar Con and the Woman Who Got Away with It '. Finally, he held a conference on this book at the Red Line Festival in Dublin on October 16th.

A Growing Investigation

Even if Ruja Ignatova is still nowhere to be found, the investigation is progressing and some associates of the scammer have fallen.

Yesterday, October 18, a lawyer from the Bavarian city of Munich appeared in court. He reportedly transferred $ 19.7 million to an account in the Cayman Islands for the Crypto Queen. This one would have lent his name to be able to buy 2 luxury apartments in the English capital.

On the other hand, a couple is accused of tampering with payments from OneCoin customers. In all, the couple would have handled 315.4 million dollars, according to the journalistic organization Bloomberg.

In addition to the couple indicted and the lawyer's trial, the list of defendants is growing. A certain Christopher Hamilton was extradited from the United States during the month of September. He is accused of laundering $105 million in 2014 via the OneCoin scam.

Konstantin Ignatov, who happens to be Ignatova's brother, took over the OneCoin company after the scandal. In 2019, he admitted and pleaded guilty to several counts against him. He thus confessed to having laundered money and participated in fraud methods such as the Ponzi scheme.

A Growing Rise In Scams In 2022

Despite the efforts of governments and crime-fighting agencies like Interpol, cybercrime is on the rise in 2022. October is one of the worst months the crypto ecosystem has ever seen, we even call it “hacktober”.

Indeed, on October 12, Chainalysis already identified 11 attacks for an amount of nearly $150 million. This is one of the worst months for hacks as the month is not over yet. Based on 2021, the record is likely to be largely broken by the end of 2022.

Interpol declared, during its annual conference which is currently taking place in India, that the means to fight against cybercrime were far too weak. The international organization also announced the creation of a special brigade to fight against online crimes. In addition, new funds should be released to better control crypto payments which are sometimes difficult to trace.

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