A British court has ordered a global asset freeze for the ‘Cryptoqueen’ and her OneCoin colleagues

A British law firm representing a group of OneCoin investors reported that a London court has issued global freezing orders on assets belonging to Bulgarian fraudster Ruja Ignatova and several of her associates. This comes months after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and its media partners exposed the initiators of the fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme, which invested in luxury real estate in the United Arab Emirates.

International authorities accuse Ruja Ignatova of being the mastermind behind a $4 billion pyramid scheme that has claimed more than 3.5 million victims worldwide since it launched in 2014.

Ignatova disappeared in 2018, shortly after the US Department of Justice charged her with fraud and money laundering.

ICIJ’s media partner Bird said files seized by Sofia police during a raid on the home of a slain police officer appear to show that Ignatova was later murdered on a yacht in Greece on the orders of a Bulgarian mafia boss. But some news organizations have cast doubt on that story.

The London High Court decision, made public earlier this month, was part of a legal claim brought by a group of more than 400 OneCoin investors seeking damages to compensate them for losses they suffered as a result of the alleged fraud, according to their lawyers at Mishcon de Reya LLP. In addition to Ignatova, the order targeted seven individuals allegedly linked to OneCoin and two Guernsey companies used by Ignatova to purchase two properties in London, according to the BBC, which has reported extensively on the scam.

“This is a very important step for victims seeking justice for the fraud perpetrated against them,” Mishcon de Reya partner Rhymal Persad said in a statement posted on the law firm’s website. “It has taken a long time to get to this point, but this is an important step in ensuring that those allegedly responsible for carrying out these unlawful acts are held to account properly.”

ICIJ previously reported that in 2015, Ignatova used a Dubai shell company, Oceana Properties Ltd., to buy a $2.7 million penthouse apartment on the top floor of a skyscraper overlooking Palm Jumeirah, an archipelago of man-made islands in the Persian Gulf.

The investigation found that at least 11 of her associates, like Ignatova, have owned some of Dubai’s most exclusive properties over the past nine years.

The findings were part of Dubai Unlocked, an investigation into the emirate’s role as an investment hub for criminals and suspects. The project was coordinated by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and Norwegian financial outlet E24. It was based on leaked confidential Dubai land registry data obtained by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that analyzes data on transnational security issues.

According to the Dubai records, the buyers included OneCoin co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in the U.S. for his involvement in the OneCoin scheme; and Kari Wahlroos, a Finnish businessman who presented himself as OneCoin’s “European ambassador” at promotional events hosted by the company. Greenwood declined to answer questions from ICIJ partners. Wahlroos, who has not been charged, told Finnish broadcaster YLE that he owned several apartments in Dubai. He denied knowing that the company was being used to launder money, as prosecutors alleged. “I have never had a cent to do with OneCoin itself,” Wahlroos said.

Greenwood and Walhroos, along with Ignatova, are among those facing a global asset freeze, the BBC reported.

It is unclear whether the freezing order, which is intended to prevent the defendants from selling their assets, will have immediate effect. The order may not be enforceable unless the courts in the countries where the assets are located formally recognize and acknowledge it.

Jonathan Levy, a lawyer representing other victims of the OneCoin fraud, told ICIJ he was skeptical about the effect of the measure, given that “nobody knows where Ignatova is.” He said there are $2 billion in assets related to the scheme worldwide that have yet to be “discovered” and that it is unlikely that they are in England, where the asset freeze would have the most impact.

In 2019, after several banks flagged transactions involving the “Cryptoqueen” and her companies as suspicious, Ignatova’s company Oceana Properties completed the sale of her luxury apartment in Dubai.

A property deed obtained by ICIJ partner Paper Trail Media shows that a young British lawyer bought the apartment for about $1.6 million. It is not clear who arranged the sale on Ignatova’s behalf and pocketed the money. The lawyer who bought the property did not respond to questions from reporters.

Ignatova remains on the FBI’s most wanted fugitives list. The agency considers her alive “until there is documented evidence that she is dead,” a spokesperson told ICIJ.

The US government recently increased the reward offered for “information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Ruja Ignatova” to $5 million.