Onecoin Cryptoqueen’s ex-boyfriend gets 5 years in prison –
A former friend of Ruja Ignatova, the mastermind behind the Onecoin Ponzi scheme, has been sentenced to five years in prison. The ruling relates to the laundering of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of proceeds from the notorious crypto scam that has defrauded investors around the world.
Ruja’s former boyfriend convicted of money laundering related to Onecoin
Gilbert Armenta, the ex-boyfriend of crypto pyramid Onecoin founder Ruja Ignatova, has been convicted in the United States, Bloomberg Law reported. According to court documents, he helped launder $300 million in proceeds from one of the largest Ponzi schemes in crypto history.
In 2018, Armenta, now 59, pleaded guilty to conspiring to wire fraud, money laundering and extortion, all related to Onecoin. He worked with prosecutors investigating the fraud for about two years, but later committed other crimes and violated the agreement.
Founded in 2014, Onecoin operated as a global multi-level marketing network based on a cryptocurrency based, which as such never really existed, although it was described as “Bitcoin-Killer” was advertised. According to Onecoin’s own documents, more than 3 million people have invested over $4 billion in Onecoin since 2016.
Bulgarian-born German national Ruja Ignatova disappeared in October 2017 while boarding a Ryanair flight bound for Athens in Sofia. Despite this, she is wanted by Interpol, Europol and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Her brother and co-founder Konstantin, who was jailed in Los Angeles in 2019, pleaded guilty to onecoin-related charges and filed for witness protection in the US, pleaded guilty to his involvement in the fraud.
Cryptopyramid mastermind Ruja Ignatova is still missing
Information about Ignatova’s whereabouts and activities has regularly surfaced in media reports. Last July, Greece’s leading daily Kathimerini revealed that Greek police had attempted to locate and arrest her, responding to intelligence information suggesting she was in the country and holding meetings with unidentified people.
In January this year, British media revealed that a $15 million flat bought by the “missing crypto queen” through a Guernsey-based company had been put up for sale. A BBC report on the subject revealed that the Kensington penthouse had been listed as a historic monument with the approval of the authorities in Germany.
The public prosecutor’s office in Bielefeld accuses the German lawyer Martin Breidenbach, who works for Ignatova, of money laundering because he transferred 20 million euros to buy the four-room apartment. In October, he appeared in court along with two Onecoin employees to face charges of fraud and other crimes.
Do you think law enforcement will eventually find Onecoin founder Ruja Ignatova? Share your thoughts on the case in the comments section below.
photo credit: Shutterstock, Pixabay, WikiCommons
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Source: Crypto News Deutsch
