OneCoin Co-Founder just got a 20-year jail term for diverting investors funds worth $40 billionđ, while the CryptoQueen is still on the run!
Karl Sebastian Greenwood, a pioneer and marketer in the crypto exchange industry, has been sentenced to a lengthy 20-year prison term for his role in the notorious OneCoin scam. The fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme, co-founded by Greenwood and Ruja Ignatova, generated a staggering $4 billion in revenue and $2.7 billion in profits between 2014 and 2016.
The scheme, which operated as a multilevel marketing program, rewarded commission to individuals for recruiting others to the scheme. Greenwood, who was the primary promoter of the pyramid scheme, accrued as much as $300 million from the scam, which he used to purchase properties in Spain, Dubai, and Thailand, as well as a luxury trip in a private OneCoin jet, designer clothes, and a down payment on a Sunseeker yacht.
The OneCoin scam, which impacted almost 3.5 million people globally, was regarded as the first and largest criminal fraud involving cryptocurrency in history at the time.
Greenwood's co-conspirator, Ignatova, who is now on the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation's most wanted criminal list, remains a fugitive. Ignatova, also known as the "Cryptoqueen," was the mastermind behind the scheme, which was touted as the next Bitcoin in the crypto ecosystem.
However, the scheme had no blockchain, no real cryptocoin, and no trading market, and victims could not withdraw their investments. United States District Judge Edgardo Ramos described the fraud as massive and likened it to old-fashioned snake oil. Ignatova has a $100,000 bounty reward on her head for anyone who can provide information on her current whereabouts.