In the latest development in the $4 billion OneCoin cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, the company’s Head of Legal and Compliance, Irina Dilkinska, has been sentenced to four years of imprisonment in the United States. She was ordered to pay over $111 million in restitution.
Another OneCoin Associate Goes to Jail
The sentencing, which took place yesterday (Wednesday), followed Dilkinska's admission of guilt to wire fraud and money laundering charges filed by US federal prosecutors in November last year. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 5 years of imprisonment, meaning Dilkinska was looking at a maximum of 10 years in prison.
The 42-year-old Bulgarian citizen’s plea to avoid jail and return to her home country was denied by the US Judge, and she has been sentenced to one month of supervised release.
During the sentencing, United States District Judge Edgardo Ramos pointed out that Dilkinska is “a woman of great intelligence and a woman who ought to have known better” of the consequences of her involvement in the fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme.
“I honestly do not understand what prevented her from leaving the scheme before the point when it was brought down,” the Judge added.
Although Dilkinska was responsible for ensuring that OneCoin complied with the law, she laundered $110 million for the multi-billion dollar crypto scam through an entity in the Cayman Islands.
A $4 Billion Scam
OneCoin is purported to be the largest cryptocurrency scam ever pulled, as victims around the globe invested over $4 billion. Based in Bulgaria, it operated as a multi-level marketing scheme, defrauding victims even in the remotest Pacific islands. According to available records, OneCoin generated more than €4 billion in sales revenue between the fourth quarter of 2014 and the fourth quarter of 2016, earning over €2.7 billion in profits.
Ruja Igantova, aka 'Cryptoqueen', was the mastermind behind the massive fraudulent scheme. However, she disappeared from public view in October 2017 after reaching Greece on a commercial flight from Bulgaria. Her name is now on the FBI's top ten "Most Wanted" person list, with a reward of $100,000 for any information leading to her arrest. In addition, she is on the list of Europe's most wanted fugitives.
Earlier this year, Mark Scott, a lawyer who laundered $400 million for OneCoin, was sentenced to ten years in prison. The US prosecutors took action against a few other top individuals associated with the fraudulent scheme, including Karl Greenwood, the Co-Founder, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
