A woman dubbed the “Missing CryptoQueen” who is accused of orchestrating a $4.5billion scam has been hit with a global asset freeze.
Ruja Ignatova is on the FBI’s Most Wanted list and being pursued by investors who were conned in the OneCoin cryptocurrency scam.
Ignatova was last seen stepping off a RyanAir flight in Athens in 2017, while rumours have swirled in the intervening years that she has been murdered by Bulgarian underworld figures.
At the High Court in London on Tuesday, a freezing order was imposed on Ms Ignatova, seven other individuals, and four companies with alleged ties to OneCoin.
Included in the order are two Guernsey companies used by Ms Ignatova to buy a £13.5million Kensington penthouse, as well as a neighbouring £1.9million apartment for her bodyguards.
The High Court order, which prevents assets from being moved or sold, was obtained by a group of more than 400 OneCoin investors who are attempting to recoup their losses.
The FBI has put up a £4million reward for information that leads to Ms Ignatova’s capture.
In 2023, the High Court heard how OneCoin was marketed as an investment at events across the world, including at Wembley Arena.
Scheme members paid commissions for recruiting others to buy OneCoin.
But judges were told that OneCoin was in fact “a fraudulent Ponzi scheme” that had “no intrinsic economic value”.
Jennifer McAdam, one of the cheated investors, said: “I have seen first-hand the toll this fraud has taken on so many lives.
“The stories of victims are utterly heart-breaking and the financial ruin they have been left in is unbearable.”
Investors in the UK are believed to have lost more than £100million to the scam, and law firm Mishcon de Reya is leading efforts by victims to reclaim the money.
OneCoin’s co-founder Sebastian Greenwood, who has been jailed for fraud in the US, is named on the High Court order, along with British businessmen Christopher Hamilton and Robert MacDonald who are accused of laundering the profits of the OneCoin scam.
Both men have successfully battled against extradition to the US to face criminal charges.
Mr MacDonald argued he should not be sent as he is a carer for his sick wife, while judges blocked Mr Hamilton’s extradition last year on the grounds that he “should be answerable” to UK – rather than US – law.
