A federal judge in the Southern District of New York sentenced Karl Greenwood, one of the founders of the OneCoin pyramid scheme, to 20 years in prison for his involvement in the conspiracy, according to a statement from the attorney’s office.
Additionally, Greenwood was ordered by U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos to forfeit $300 million, which is roughly how much money he took from the fraud.
OneCoin was founded in 2014 in Bulgaria, advertising itself as a cryptocurrency and claiming to have genuine value for investors. In truth, it was a pyramid scheme where investors received payments for recruiting new participants; it did not actually exist on the blockchain.
OneCoin is thought to have scammed at least 3.5 million people out of more than $4 billion.
OneCoin’s “global master distributor” and “leader of the MLM (multi-level marketing) network through which the fraudulent cryptocurrency was marketed and sold,” according to the attorney’s office, was Greenwood. As a result, he received 5% of OneCoin’s monthly sales worldwide.
He was held pending trial after being arrested in Thailand in 2018 and being extradited to the United States. In December of last year, he admitted guilt to the charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money.
Ruja Ignatova, a co-founder of the scheme and the “CryptoQueen,” is still at large and was included on the FBI’s Most Wanted list last year.