Has Ruja Ignatova, Crypto Queen, Reappeared?

Ruja Ignatova, the infamous name placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List, has reappeared due to the listing of a luxury London penthouse flat bought by the crypto scammer, a BBC report disclosed.

Details of the £12.5 million listing were revealed as part of new transparency rules in the UK, which require owners of properties to be publicly displayed.

The "Crypto Queen" and her associates made off with around £3.2 billion (around $4 billion) from her cryptocurrency, OneCoin. The BBC estimates that investors from the UK alone lost more than £100 million.

UK authorities believe she is trying to facilitate the sale of her property from the shadows. The reappearance of the name Ruja Ignativa - who did so much harm to stakeholders in her fake cryptocurrency - has reignited hope that some lost funds could be recouped.

A former investor in OneCoin, Layla Begum, said her family lost more than £54,000 after she was persuaded by a friend to risk money on the emerging crypto project. She said that UK authorities could help British investors who lost money in OneCoin since the purchase of the London flat undoubtedly came from proceeds in the crypto scam.

Reward for information on Ruja Ignatova

While UK prosecutors are trying to avoid proceeds of the sale going back to the coffers of the scammers, the FBI has placed an £80,600 ($100,000) bounty on the head of Ruja Ingatova.

In 2019, a federal jury in New York found Mark Scott, a former lawyer with links to OneCoin, guilty of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and money laundering after helping route more than £300 million out of the US.

The brother of the Crypto Queen, Konstantin Ignatova, also pled guilty to the same charges.

The latest guilty plea came from Sebastian Greenwood, co-founder of the worthless cryptocurrency, in December when he admitted engaging in fraud and money laundering.