Legal Chief Convicted of $4.4 Billion Crypto Fraud, Receives 4-Year Sentence
Irina Dilkinska, the former head of legal and compliance for the infamous OneCoin Ponzi scheme, has been sentenced to four years in prison by United States District Judge Edgardo Ramos. This decision comes after Dilkinska admitted to her role in laundering millions of dollars through the fraudulent cryptocurrency operation. In addition to her prison term, the 42-year-old has been ordered to serve one month of supervised release and forfeit $111 million as part of the restitution measures.
Dilkinska’s plea to avoid imprisonment in order to care for her young children in Bulgaria was rejected by Judge Ramos. He emphasized her intelligence and understanding of the legal consequences of her actions within the $4.4 billion scheme, stating that she is “a woman of great intelligence and a woman who ought to have known better.”
The former executive was charged with wire fraud and money laundering, both of which carry a maximum sentence of five years. Her guilty plea last November in a Manhattan federal court exposed her to a possible ten-year prison sentence. This sentencing makes Dilkinska the latest OneCoin executive to be incarcerated.
Karl Sebastian Greenwood, the co-founder of the scheme, was sentenced to 20 years in jail in September 2023 for his involvement in fraud and money laundering, along with a restitution order of $300 million.
OneCoin was established in 2014 by Ruja Ignatova, also known as “Cryptoqueen,” and her associate Greenwood. The scheme promised investors guaranteed returns through a fraudulent cryptocurrency called “OneCoin.” Subsequent investigations revealed the absence of a legitimate blockchain, exposing OneCoin as a pyramid scheme that relied on new investors to sustain itself.
Although OneCoin was exposed as a fraud in 2015, it managed to generate over $4.3 billion in revenue and nearly $3 billion in profits between 2014 and 2016. Ignatova has been missing since October 2017, vanishing shortly after a federal warrant was issued for her arrest. This has led to speculation regarding her fate, especially following the murder of several OneCoin associates in Mexico in 2020.