The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a compensation process for victims of the OneCoin crypto Ponzi scheme, using forfeited assets seized from some of the operation’s architects. The DOJ said more than $40 million in forfeited assets is available to compensate anyone who purchased OneCoin between 2014 and 2019 and recorded a net loss.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said the process is “an important step toward returning funds to those harmed,” noting that while full recovery is impossible, the Office will keep seizing criminal proceeds and prioritizing returns to victims.
OneCoin launched in 2014 aiming to rival Bitcoin and at one point was touted as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. It later collapsed after users and regulators discovered the tokens had no real utility and international investigations exposed the operation as a fraudulent scheme.
The DOJ estimates OneCoin stole more than $4 billion from roughly 3.5 million victims between 2014 and the end of 2016; some outside estimates place total worldwide losses as high as $19 billion. Prior to the collapse, central banks in several countries, including Latvia, Sweden and Norway, warned investors that OneCoin could be a Ponzi scheme.
OneCoin was founded by Ruja Ignatova and Karl Sebastian Greenwood in Bulgaria and began operating in the United States around 2015. Bulgarian authorities raided OneCoin’s offices in 2018 and arrested Greenwood. He was sentenced in September 2023 to 20 years in prison for his role in the scheme.
Ignatova disappeared in 2017 after boarding a flight to Athens and remains at large. She is on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list, with a $5 million reward offered for information leading to her capture and conviction.
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