One of the Directors of the Crypto Ponzi Scheme OneCoin Faces 40 Years in Prison

U.S. federal prosecutors have charged a former director of the crypto Ponzi scheme OneCoin for her role in the operation. Irina Dilkinska now faces up to 40 years in prison after being extradited from Bulgaria.

The Department of Justice charged Dilkinska yesterday, OneCoin’s former head of legal affairs and compliance, with one count of electronic fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Each count carries a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison.

Dilkinska allegedly helped launder over 400 million dollars in OneCoin’s proceeds, and after hearing about the arrest of a co-conspirator, she destroyed incriminating evidence and sent incriminating messages.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams highlighted the irony of Dilkinska’s job title given the nature of OneCoin.

– Irina Dilkinska, the alleged head of legal affairs and compliance for the cryptocurrency pyramid scheme OneCoin, achieved the exact opposite of her job title and allegedly enabled OneCoin to launder millions of dollars in illegal proceeds through fictitious companies – said Williams.

The statement notes that Dilkinska was extradited from Bulgaria on Monday, March 20, and appeared before Judge Sarah Netburn on Tuesday, March 21.

OneCoin was founded in 2014 by ‘cryptoqueen’ Ruja Ignatova and Karl Sebastian Greenwood, the latter facing up to 60 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges in December.

However, Ignatova managed to evade capture and disappeared in October 2017 after a flight to Greece just 15 days after a federal warrant was issued for her arrest.

In June 2022, Ignatova was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, with a reward of 100,000 dollars offered for information leading to her arrest.

OneCoin was revealed as a fraud back in 2015, but it managed to generate over 4.3 billion dollars in revenue, with profits of nearly 3 billion dollars just between 2014 and 2016.