Karl Greenwood, the co-founder of the massive cryptocurrency scam OneCoin, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in the United States. This landmark decision was handed down by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, sending a strong message against cryptocurrency fraud.
Additionally, Greenwood has been ordered to pay $300 million in refund to the victims of the scam. Meanwhile, Ruja Ignatova, the other co-founder of OneCoin, remains at large and on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s ten most wanted list.
OneCoin’s team often compared to Bitcoin in its sales pitches, was exposed as one of the largest fraud schemes ever perpetrated by the U.S. Department of Justice. This scheme duped approximately 3.5 million victims and collected a staggering $4 billion through multilevel marketing and Ponzi schemes. Contrary to legitimate cryptocurrencies, OneCoin had no actual value, lacking a public and verifiable blockchain, mining operations, or even a sufficient number of coins on its private blockchain.
Greenwood, a citizen of both the United Kingdom and Sweden, had been in custody since 2018 when he was extradited from Thailand. He pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and money laundering in December, potentially facing up to 60 years in prison. During his involvement with OneCoin, Greenwood earned over $300 million through a 5% commission on all OneCoin sales. He lived a lavish lifestyle, indulging in luxury goods and extravagances.
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Despite Greenwood’s sentencing, the whereabouts of Ruja Ignatova, the mastermind behind OneCoin, remains a mystery, and Ignatova has not been seen since October 2017. The saga surrounding her disappearance took a curious turn earlier this year when rumors circulated that she may have been killed in Greece five years ago.
Earlier, a similar incident was observed in a report by Todayq News in 2022, where the CFTC charged South African CEO Cornelius Johannes Steynberg and his company, Mirror Trading International (MTI), with a $1.7 billion Bitcoin fraud case, marking the CFTC’s largest fraud scheme involving Bitcoin. Steynberg admitted to accepting 29,421 Bitcoin valued at over $1.7 billion and is wanted by South African police.
The sentencing of Karl Greenwood is a significant step in dismantling the criminal’s OneCoin. It serves as a clear warning to those who engage in fraudulent activities within the cryptocurrency space, reaffirming the commitment of law enforcement agencies to bring individuals responsible for such scams to justice.