The cryptocurrency business has attracted bold, daring risk-takers, all lured by the promise of wealth. Nevertheless, the skinny line between ambition and greed has led some down a darker path.
The business has witnessed quite a few fraudsters orchestrating elaborate crypto scams, defrauding traders of billions by Ponzi schemes, failed exchanges, and fraudulent coin choices. From fugitive masterminds to change operators turned criminals, the people behind these schemes have gained infamy for his or her audacity and deception.
Ruja Plamenova Ignatova
Ruja Plamenova Ignatova, generally known as the “Cryptoqueen,” is on the heart of one of many largest crypto scams in historical past. Ignatova was born in Bulgaria and raised in Germany.
She graduated from Oxford College and initially pursued a profitable profession in finance. In 2014, she co-founded the cryptocurrency OneCoin with Karl Sebastian Greenwood. The operations have been based mostly in Sofia, Bulgaria.
OneCoin promised excessive returns for traders. Ignatova’s gross sales pitch was persuasive.
She satisfied hundreds of thousands worldwide to spend money on OneCoin. It operated by a multi-level advertising and marketing (MLM) scheme.
She claimed that OneCoin could be a revolutionary cryptocurrency that would compete with Bitcoin (BTC).
“OneCoin is supposed to be the Bitcoin killer. In two years, nobody will speak about Bitcoin anymore,” she informed traders.
In 2015, Ignatova revealed that OneCoin was formally getting into the US market. Nevertheless, the next 12 months, cracks began to seem as traders discovered it tough to promote their OneCoins and get better their preliminary investments.
It was later revealed that OneCoin was a Ponzi scheme with no verifiable blockchain behind it, defrauding traders of over $4 billion globally. Authorized paperwork confirmed that Ignatova and Greenwood have been allegedly conscious from the beginning that the undertaking was a fraudulent enterprise.
“It might not be [something] really clean or that I normally work on or even can be proud of (except with you in private when we make the money) – but . . . I am especially good in this very borderline cases [sic], where the things become gray – and you as the magic sales machine – and me as someone who really can work with numbers, legal and back you up in a good and professional way – we could really make it big – like MLM meets bitch of wall street ;-)” Ignatova wrote to Greenwood.
On October 12, 2017, Ignatova was charged with fraud and cash laundering. The authorities additionally issued a federal arrest warrant.
Nonetheless, she vanished shortly thereafter. Ignatova boarded a business flight from Sofia, Bulgaria, to Athens, Greece, and has not been seen since.
The FBI has positioned Ignatova on its Ten Most Needed Fugitives checklist and is providing as much as $5 million reward for data resulting in her seize. She additionally stays certainly one of Europe’s most sought-after fugitives.
In the meantime, in December 2022, Greenwood pleaded responsible to wire fraud and cash laundering prices in reference to the scheme. Moreover, in April 2024, US District Decide Edgardo Ramos sentenced OneCoin’s former authorized chief, Irina Dilkinska, to 4 years in jail.
Regardless of intensive media protection and the huge scale of her fraud, Ignatova stays elusive in 2025.
Faruk Fatih Özer
Faruk Fatih Özer based Thodex, a Turkish cryptocurrency change that grew to become infamous for its huge crypto rip-off. Established in 2017, Thodex rapidly grew to turn into certainly one of Turkey’s largest crypto platforms.
In April 2021, the change abruptly shut down, with a message showing on the Thodex web site claiming the platform could be offline for 4 to 5 days. Nevertheless, this was the start of a significant disaster.
Over 400,000 customers discovered themselves unable to entry their accounts, with round $2 billion value of cryptocurrencies locked within the platform.
Following the closure, Fatih Özer fled to Albania. In the meantime, authorities arrested his sister Serap Özer, his brother Güven Özer, and 4 different senior workers. Furthermore, additionally they detained round 83 folks as a part of the investigation.
Özer’s disappearance sparked a manhunt. He was caught in Albania in 2022 and later extradited to Turkey in 2023. In September 2023, Fatih Özer, alongside along with his siblings, was sentenced to a mixed 11,196 years in jail.
Nonetheless, in January 2025, the twenty second Prison Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Courtroom of Justice annulled a part of the unique choice. The courtroom acquitted 16 defendants of the cost of “qualified fraud” as a result of an absence of proof. It additionally ordered the discharge of 4 defendants.
Nevertheless, not all defendants have been freed. The courtroom launched Fatih Özer and his siblings from prices of “organizing and leading a criminal group,” however their detention continued on different prices.
Satish Kumbhani
Satish Kumbhani, the founding father of BitConnect, masterminded a worldwide Ponzi scheme that defrauded traders of $2.4 billion between 2016 and 2018. The DOJ, referencing courtroom paperwork, stated Kumbhani deceived traders about BitConnect’s “Lending Program.”
He and his companions promoted BitConnect’s proprietary expertise, the “BitConnect Trading Bot” and “Volatility Software,” as instruments that would assure large earnings by buying and selling on cryptocurrency market fluctuations.
Nevertheless, BitConnect was truly a Ponzi scheme, utilizing cash from new traders to pay earlier ones. Kumbhani shut down the Lending Program after a couple of 12 months.
He then informed his promoters to control the BitConnect Coin (BCC) worth to make it appear to be there was actual demand for it. Kumbhani and his companions additionally hid investor funds by mixing, biking, and exchanging them by BitConnect’s wallets and numerous worldwide exchanges.
On September 1, 2021, the US Securities and Change Fee (SEC) filed a lawsuit towards BitConnect. The regulator alleged that BitConnect deceived retail traders. Moreover, Glenn Arcaro, Head of BitConnect’s North American division, pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit wire fraud within the US District Courtroom.
The BitConnect founder was indicted in February 2022 and faces a number of prices. If discovered responsible on all prices, he might withstand 70 years in jail.
“Kumbhani is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodity price manipulation, operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business, and conspiracy to commit international money laundering,” the assertion learn.
In the meantime, in September 2022, the courtroom sentenced Arcaro to 38 months in jail and ordered him to repay $17.6 million to victims from 40 nations.
The tales of Ruja Ignatova, Faruk Fatih Özer, and Satish Kumbhani illustrate the devastating influence of crypto scams, with billions misplaced and lives upended. These circumstances spotlight the necessity for better regulatory oversight, investor training, and worldwide cooperation to fight fraud within the house.
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