A London-headquartered law firm is preparing a lawsuit against the fugitive mastermind of the Onecoin crypto pyramid scheme, ‘Cryptoqueen’ Ruja Ignatova. Its lawyers intend to file a class action suit in the United Kingdom’s High Court, the British press revealed.
Fugitive Cryptoqueen May Face U.K. High Court Lawsuit Over Investor Losses
Mishcon de Reya, the elite British law firm that once had Princess Diana among its high-profile clients, is now working on a lawsuit against the founder of the notorious crypto scam Onecoin, the still “missing Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova.
The lawyers are planning a class action lawsuit in Britain’s High Court, the Mail on Sunday reported. Mishcon seeks to recover funds lost by investors in the Ponzi scheme. Claimants can sign up on a “no-win, no-fee” basis, the newspaper detailed. Mishcon partner Rhymal Persad elaborated:
The claim aims to achieve at least partial redress for investors taken in by the deception and who suffered losses as a result.
Launched in 2014 by Bulgarian-born German national Ignatova and her business partner Karl Sebastian Greenwood, a citizen of Sweden and the United Kingdom, Onecoin operated as a multi-level marketing structure that enticed victims to put money into a fake cryptocurrency with the same name.
Between the fourth quarter of 2014 and the fourth quarter of 2016 alone, its operators managed to convince at least 3.5 million people around the world to invest over $4 billion. While Greenwood was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison, Ignatova is at large. She was last seen in public six years ago.
Onecoin, arguably the largest fraud in crypto history, advertised its non-existing crypto as the “Bitcoin killer,” promising huge returns for those who bought it, although its value was set by the scammers. They claimed the coins were issued on a private blockchain and mined like regular cryptocurrencies.
Other associates of FBI-wanted Ruja Ignatova who have been caught already include her brother and also Onecoin co-founder, Konstantin, who was arrested in 2019, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with U.S. authorities, as well as lawyer Mark Scott who was recently denied a new trial.
The Cryptoqueen herself disappeared after boarding an Athens-bound flight on Oct. 25, 2017, in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, where Onecoin had offices. Information about her suspected whereabouts has occasionally appeared in media reports, including one claiming she was killed in Greece in 2018.
Do you think Ruja Ignatova will be found and arrested to face a trial and lawsuits like the one prepared by the British law firm? Tell us in the comments section below.
