A U.S. court has ruled that Konstantin Ignatov, the brother of Cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova, who perpetrated the $4 billion OneCoin cryptocurrency fraud, will spend no more time behind bars for his role in the scam.
According to a Bloomberg report, U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos released Ignatov from prison on March 5 after he pleaded guilty to helping his sister run the international crypto fraud scheme.
Ignatov Released From Jail
Following Ignatov’s guilty plea, Judge Ramos sentenced him to 34 months behind bars, a jail term recommended by the prosecutors the alleged fraudster cooperated with. He was released since he had already spent that amount of time in jail before the plea.
Ignatova hired her brother to work as her personal assistant during OneCoin’s boom from Q4 2014 to Q3 2016. After his sister’s disappearance in 2017, Ignatov took over and became the “de facto leader” of the scheme, according to the prosecutors.
During the trial, Ignatov confessed that he lied about discarding his laptop in Las Vegas on the witness stand at an earlier proceeding. He also testified against Mark Scott, a former OneCoin lawyer convicted of laundering $400 million from the scheme. Scott landed a 10-year sentence in January and was ordered to forfeit $392 million.
Ignatov’s sentence came with two years of supervised release and an agreement to forfeit $118,000, as ordered by Judge Ramos. He also rejected Scott’s request to nullify his guilty verdict due to Ignatov’s perjury because the lie was a side issue that did not affect the jury’s decision.
Cryptoqueen Remains at Large, or Is She?
Besides Ignatov and Scott, other former executives of OneCoin have been receiving jail sentences for their roles in the billion-dollar fraud scheme. Karl Sebastian Greenwood, OneCoin co-founder and Ignatova’s wingman, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in September for his role in the fraud project. As the main promoter of OneCoin, Greenwood profited $300 million from OneCoin, which he lavished on luxurious trips, outfits, and properties.
In addition, OneCoin’s head of legal and compliance, Irina Dilkinska, pleaded guilty in November and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for her role in the project.
Meanwhile, Ignatova has remained at large since 2017. While she is on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Ten Most Wanted list, rumors are making the rounds that a local drug lord may have killed her in 2018.
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