The leader of the $4.4 billion OneCoin pyramid scheme pleads guilty and faces up to 90 years in prison!

According to a BBC report today, Konstantin Ignatov, co-founder of the OneCoin pyramid scheme, admitted to participating in the multi-billion dollar fraud. He signed a plea on October 4 and currently faces up to 90 years in prison.

Ignatov recently pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including money laundering and fraud, after being arrested by the FBI at Los Angeles International Airport in March 2019. Despite facing up to 90 years in prison, he has not yet been sentenced, and other than potential tax violations, he will not face further criminal charges for his role in OneCoin.

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OneCoin pyramid scheme involves $4.4 billion, another leader is still on the run

According to the BBC, the Bulgaria-based OneCoin parent company was founded in 2014 and is still operating despite investigators accusing the company of raising 4 billion euros (about 4.4 billion U.S. dollars) through a pyramid scheme.

In addition, the report also mentioned that Ignatov also provided more details against his sister (Ruja Ignatova, another leader of OneCoin), who is also known as the "Crypto Queen" and allegedly helped launder nearly $400 million through OneCoin. Ignatov stated in court that his sister obtained a passport and tickets to Austria and Greece from her home in Bulgaria.

Ignatov said that Ignatov would view people who criticized OneCoin as "haters" and was afraid that people close to her would turn her in to the FBI. Ignatov also said that he hired a private investigator to find his sister and that he had not spoken to her since she disappeared.

It is reported that Ignatov testified on November 6 that after his sister Ignatova escaped, the security personnel accompanying her revealed that Ignatova had met with Russian-speaking people, and according to Matthew Russell Lee, founder of Inner City Press, Ignatova had received support and protection from an unnamed Russian tycoon.

To date, Ignatova's whereabouts remain unknown.