A $40 million fund has been established from seized assets for victims of the OneCoin $4 billion cryptocurrency fraud to seek compensation, as announced by the US Department of Justice on Monday. The international scheme, which operated from 2014 to 2019, was led by co-founders Ignatova and Karl Sebastian Greenwood, and involved the marketing and sale of a fraudulent cryptocurrency through a global multi-level-marketing network. Up to 3.4 million investors worldwide were defrauded, with total investments exceeding $4 billion.
The scheme, described by the DOJ as one of the largest global frauds in history, collapsed in 2017 after Ignatova and her team were found to have manipulated the perceived value of OneCoin. In 2022, Greenwood admitted to federal wire fraud and money laundering charges, and a $5 million reward was offered for the missing Cryptqueen in June 2024.
According to US Attorney Jay Clayton, the founders of OneCoin sold a false promise disguised as a cryptocurrency, resulting in losses of over $4 billion worldwide. The DOJ will continue to seize criminal proceeds, prioritizing the return of funds to victims. This development comes approximately four weeks after the FTX Recovery Trust announced a $2.2 billion distribution to creditors, as part of a broader effort to recover assets for users of the collapsed crypto trading platform.