-
Bulgarian
national
Irina
Dilkinska,
the
former
head
of
legal
and
compliance
for
OneCoin,
was
sentenced
to
4
years
in
prison
for
money
laundering
and
wire
fraud. -
Dilkinska
helped
executives
launder
hundreds
of
millions
in
fraud
proceeds. -
She
is
the
latest
OneCoin
executive
to
be
brought
to
justice
for
her
role
in
the
$4
billion
crypto
Ponzi
scheme.
OneCoin’s
former
head
of
legal
and
compliance
was
sentenced
to
four
years
in
prison
on
Wednesday
for
her
role
in
the
infamous
$4
billion
crypto
ponzi
scheme.
Instead
of
ensuring
OneCoin
was
operating
within
legal
and
regulatory
parameters,
prosecutors
say
Bulgarian
national
Irina
Dilkinska
helped
with
the
day-to-day
operations
of
the
scheme
and,
after
its
collapse
in
2016,
helped
executives
launder
their
ill-gotten
gains
by
working
with
American
lawyer
Mark
Scott
to
squirrel
away
$400
million
to
the
Cayman
Islands.
Scott,
a
former
partner
at
international
law
firm
Locke
Lord,
was
sentenced
to
10
years
in
prison
for
his
role
in
the
scheme
earlier
this
year.
Dilkinska,
42,
was
extradited
to
the
U.S.
in
March
2023
and
charged
with
one
count
each
of
conspiracy
to
commit
wire
fraud
and
conspiracy
to
commit
money
laundering.
She
pleaded
guilty
to
both
charges
in
November
2023.
New
York
District
Court
Judge
Edgardo
Ramos
also
ordered
Dilkinska
to
forfeit
$111.4
million.
Dilkinska
is
the
latest
OneCoin
executive
to
be
put
behind
bars
for
her
involvement
in
the
scam,
which
started
in
Bulgaria
in
2014
and
shut
down
in
early
2017.
OneCoin’s
co-founders,
Bulgarian
national
Ruja
Ignatova
and
joint
U.K.
and
Swedish
citizen
Karl
Greenwood,
promoted
the
fictitious
cryptocurrency
–
which
never
existed
on
any
blockchain
–
through
a
kind
of
multi-level
marketing
scheme,
paying
initial
investors
to
bring
in
more
investors.
By
the
time
OneCoin
was
revealed
to
be
a
scam,
an
estimated
3.5
million
people
had
fallen
victim.
Greenwood
was
sentenced
to
20
years
in
prison
in
September
2023
and
ordered
to
forfeit
$300
million.
So-called
“Cryptoqueen”
Ignatova
remains
at
large,
seven
years
after
vanishing
in
Athens
in
2017.
In
2022,
Ignatova
was
added
to
the
FBI’s
Most
Wanted
List,
offering
a
$250,000
bounty
for
information
leading
to
her
arrest.
Whether
Ignatova
will
ever
be
brought
to
justice
remains
unclear.
The
FBI
has
suggested
she
could
have
altered
her
appearance
with
plastic
surgery
or
may
be
traveling
on
a
German
passport
in
the
Middle
East
or
Eastern
Europe.
There
are
also
rumors
that
Ignatova
may
be
dead.
In
2023,
a
report
from
a
Bulgarian
media
organization
suggested
that
Ignatova
was
murdered
and
subsequently
dismembered
on
a
yacht
in
the
Ionian
Sea
in
2018
at
the
command
of
a
Bulgarian
drug
lord
known
as
“Taki.”
Jesse
Hamilton
edited
this
story.
