The U.S. Department of Justice has announced that individuals who purchased OneCoin between 2014 and 2019 may be eligible for compensation
The U.S. Department of Justice has announced the start of the process to compensate victims of the OneCoin cryptocurrency pyramid scheme. People around the world lost $4 billion as a result of this pseudo-investment scheme.
The department reported that $40 million is currently available to compensate for losses. Individuals who purchased OneCoin cryptocurrency between 2014 and 2019 may apply to participate in the compensation program, which is administered by Kroll. Applications must be submitted by June 30.
The fraudulent scheme underlying the operations of OneCoin, the largest crypto pyramid scheme, was devised by Bulgarian citizen “Crypto Queen” Ruzha Ignatova and Karl Sebastian Greenwood. The project was presented as a high-yield cryptocurrency, where profits could be earned not only from the asset’s growth but also from recruiting new participants.
Greenwood was arrested in Thailand in 2018; in 2023, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined $300 million. Ignatova has been wanted since 2017. In 2022, the FBI offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to her capture.
Legal proceedings were also conducted against other individuals associated with the OneCoin project and its founders, The Block reported. A Munich-based lawyer who allegedly transferred €20 million on Ignatova’s behalf to the Cayman Islands to purchase two London apartments appeared in court in Germany in October 2022. Prosecutors charged him, as well as a married couple who allegedly processed €320 million in payments from OneCoin clients over the course of a year, with money laundering, fraud, and banking crimes.
In April 2024, Irina Dilkinskaya, head of OneCoin’s legal and compliance departments, was sentenced to four years in prison and fined $111 million. The latest defendant in this case is William Morro, who is accused of participating in the laundering of $41 million linked to OneCoin. Morro was arrested in April 2024.
$40 million, ready to be distributed among OneCoin victims, was confiscated by court order as part of cases against key figures involved in the pyramid scheme, the U.S. Department of Justice reported.