The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a restitution initiative for those defrauded by OneCoin, the counterfeit cryptocurrency operation that swindled investors out of approximately $4 billion via an international multi-level-marketing network between 2014 and 2019.
Victims have until June 30 to file claims at onecoinremission.com for their portion of more than $40 million in forfeited assets, a process managed by Kroll Settlement Administration LLC.
“Our work at the Department of Justice is fundamentally centered on victims,” stated Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva from the Criminal Division, according to a press release. “We continue to pursue forfeiture to strip crime of its profits and use those funds for victim compensation where feasible.”
Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, described the initiative as “a significant move towards reimbursing those affected,” while James C. Barnacle Jr., Assistant Director in Charge at the FBI’s New York Field Office, highlighted the “enormous” losses sustained by victims who unknowingly exhausted their savings on a fraudulent investment scheme within an unpayable emerging financial ecosystem.
The compensation fund was established following successful prosecutions of OneCoin leaders. Karl Sebastian Greenwood, co-founder of OneCoin, received a 20-year prison sentence in 2023 for his role in the fraud, with seized assets now contributing to the victim restitution pool.
Ruja Ignatova, the other co-founder known as the “Cryptoqueen,” is still at large. Authorities worldwide continue their search for her, and she has been added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list and Europol’s most-wanted register by international police.
In 2024, the U.S. State Department increased the bounty on Ignatova to $5 million; however, her whereabouts remain unknown despite various alleged sightings in Russia and theories of her death years ago.
Despite Ignatova’s absence, the Justice Department persists in its efforts to recover funds for victims, with a recent court decision in Guernsey seizing $11.4 million tied to OneCoin fraud.