Bulgarian Authorities Urged to Seize Assets Belonging to Onecoin’s Operators

Defrauded victims of the world’s biggest known crypto scam “Onecoin” have been pushing their counsel to plead before the authorities in Bulgaria to take control of the assets belonging to the operators of Onecoin since the pyramid scheme is still very much active in Bulgaria. The counsel of the victims has filed a petition before the relevant Ombudsman’s Office of Bulgaria praying that instead of putting the culprits on trial, Sofia’s officials are protecting the culprits.

Onecoin is notoriously famous for being the world’s worst crypto fraud that victimized investors from various parts of the world. However, the majority of its victims are nationals of the US, Germany, and Argentina. Even the top enforcement agency of the US namely the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to has declared Onecoin as a “fraud” scheme. The fraudulent crypto scheme had single-handedly plundered more than US$ 25 Billion collectively from its offices in the three countries.

Currently, the scheme is no more available in US, Germany, and Argentina and in fact has been banned therein. However, Onecoin has been very actively pursuing its crypto business in Bulgaria. In Bulgaria, Onecoin has been operating several business places without any hindrance at all. In fact, it has been announcing the holding of events publicly without even bothering that it has been labeled as “fraud”.

The scheme emerged in 2014 and was initially promoted by Onecoin Limited, which is a Bulgarian-based company. However, the firm was registered outside Bulgaria, particularly in United Arab Emirates (UAE). The scheme of “Onecoin” as well as the company namely Onecoin Limited were both in fact established by one person namely Dr. Ruja Ignatova. Ignatova is a German citizen and holds a Ph.D. in law. Her known partner was a Swedish national namely Sebastian Greenwood.

The scheme started off well and looked legitimate and fooled investors easily for three years. However, it was in the year 2017, when Dr. Ignatova vanished from the picture. Instead of her, US law enforcement agencies caught another founder of Onecoin namely Konstantin Ignatov, who happened to be Dr. Ignatova’s real brother. It has been more than 4 years that Dr. Ignatova has been successfully avoiding getting caught. No one actually knows where she is hiding and what she is doing. But enforcement agencies of various countries are looking for her.

On the other hand, there are hundreds of thousands of Onecoin’s victims. They are also aware that Onecoin is still doing the same business on Bulgarian soil. They have now formed a strategy and have sent their lawyer to Bulgaria for filing a petition before an Ombudsman against Bulgaria. In this petition, the lawyer is asking the state to help the victims of Onecoin. It has been prayed therein that the assets belonging to Onecoin in Bulgari should be forthwith seized. Furthermore, the victims are praying that justice is ensured and culprits of Onecoin should be brought to trial.

The petition is pending and the Ombudsman hasn’t passed any order in the case.