Key Takeaways
- US District Judge Edgardo Ramos in Manhattan sentenced Ignatov to the 34 months he had already spent behind bars.
- Ignatov will spend the next two years under court supervision and is required to forfeit $118,000 of the proceeds he gained while involved with OneCoin.
Konstantin Ignatov, brother of the infamous “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova, will not serve any additional time in prison after admitting to his involvement in the OneCoin cryptocurrency fraud following his sister’s disappearance in 2017.
On Tuesday, US District Judge Edgardo Ramos in Manhattan sentenced Ignatov to the 34 months he had already spent behind bars. Ruja Ignatova had recruited her brother, a former forklift driver in Germany, to work as her personal assistant in the $4 billion international scam based on a fraudulent cryptocurrency known as OneCoin.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Konstantin Ignatov, received a “time served” verdict from Judge Edgardo Ramos on March 5. This verdict, commonly issued when a defendant has already spent an adequate amount of time in jail awaiting sentencing, effectively concludes Ignatov’s prison term.
At the hearing, which took place on March 5, Ignatov expressed remorse for his actions, stating, “I can only blame myself… I still have trouble looking into my own eyes in the mirror. The last five years were a very painful period in my life, but I’m glad for the lessons I’ve learned.”
Despite being released from prison, Ignatov will spend the next two years under court supervision and is required to forfeit $118,000 of the proceeds he gained while involved with OneCoin. He was arrested in 2019 and later pleaded guilty to money laundering and fraud charges.
Ignatov’s cooperation with US prosecutors played a significant role in his sentencing outcome. He testified against former lawyer Mark Scott, who was convicted of laundering $400 million from the OneCoin scheme and received a 10-year prison sentence on January 25, 2024.
During the hearing, Judge Ramos characterized the OneCoin scheme as “a massive fraud with hundreds of thousands of victims” but acknowledged Ignatov’s cooperation with prosecutors in Scott’s trial.
The OneCoin scam, which Ruja Ignatova spearheaded before her disappearance, was exposed in 2015 but managed to generate over $4.3 billion in revenue, with profits reaching nearly $3 billion between Q4 2014 and Q4 2016 alone. Ignatova, who remains at large and was added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Top Ten Most Wanted List in June 2022, faces charges of wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering.
In September 2023, Karl Greenwood, one of the founders of the OneCoin pyramid scheme, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his involvement in the project by a federal court in the Southern District of New York.
OneCoin, branded as a cryptocurrency, operated as a Ponzi scheme from Bulgaria between 2014 and 2018. It deceived investors with promises of guaranteed returns and touted itself as a “Bitcoin killer.”
Despite raising $4.4 billion and defrauding millions of victims, OneCoin did not actually exist on the blockchain and functioned as a pyramid scheme, rewarding investors for recruiting new participants.OneCoin was exposed as a scam back in 2015 but managed to generate over $4.3 billion in revenue, with profits of nearly $3 billion between Q4 2014 and Q4 2016 alone.
