A former boyfriend of Ruja Ignatova, the mastermind of the Onecoin Ponzi scheme, received five years in prison. The sentence is for laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in proceeds from the notorious crypto scam that defrauded investors around the world.
Ruja’s ex-boyfriend convicted of money laundering linked to Onecoin
Gilbert Armenta, the ex-boyfriend of Onecoin crypto-pyramid founder Ruja Ignatova, has been sentenced in the United States, Bloomberg Law reported. According to court documents, he helped launder $300 million of proceeds from one of the largest Ponzi schemes in cryptocurrency history.
In 2018, Armenta, now 59, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and extortion, all related to Onecoin. She cooperated with prosecutors in the scam investigation for about two years, but then committed other crimes, violating the agreement.
Founded in 2014, Onecoin operated as a global multi-level marketing network, based on a cryptocurrency that never really existed as such, despite billing itself as the “Bitcoin killer.” According to Onecoin’s own documents, more than 3 million people have invested more than $4 billion in Onecoin since 2016.
Bulgarian-born German citizen Ruja Ignatova disappeared in October 2017, when she boarded a Ryanair flight in Sofia bound for Athens. She still, in general, she is wanted by Interpol, Europol and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
His brother and co-founder, Konstantin, who was arrested in Los Angeles in 2019, pleaded guilty to Onecoin-related charges and sought US witness protection. In December 2022, another co-founder, British and Swedish citizen Karl Sebastian Greenwood , also pleaded guilty to his part in the scam.
Crypto Pyramid Mastermind Ruja Ignatova Is Still Missing
Information about Ignatova’s whereabouts and activities has periodically appeared in media reports. Last July, the main Greek daily Kathimerini revealed that the Hellenic police had tried to track her down and arrest her, based on intelligence indicating that she was in the country and holding meetings with unidentified people.
In January this year, British media discovered that a $15 million apartment bought by the “missing Cryptoreine” through a company based on the island of Guernsey had been offered for sale. A BBC report on the matter. revealed that the Kensington penthouse had been listed with the approval of the authorities in Germany.
The Bielefeld city prosecutor’s office has accused the German lawyer who worked for Ignatova, Martin Breidenbach, of money laundering for the transfer of 20 million euros (more than 21 million dollars) for the purchase of the four-bedroom apartment. In October, she appeared in court, along with two Onecoin associates, to face charges of fraud and other crimes.
Do you think law enforcement authorities will eventually find Onecoin founder Ruja Ignatova? Share your thoughts on the case in the comments section below.
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