Her entrance at London’s Wembley Arena was iconic. She stepped on the stage donning a flowing maroon gown with black sparkles as Alicia Keys’ “Girl on Fire” played in the background.
The crowd cheered unaware of what lay ahead. That was in June 2016. Ruja Ignatova, 42, the face behind OneCoin Ltd, launched in 2014, was touting the cryptocurrency that was Bitcoin’s rival.
She ended up on the FBI's most wanted list following her participation in what the FBI has termed as a large-scale fraud scheme.
A reward of up to $250,000 (Sh38.3 million) has been placed on her head as she remains the only woman on the FBI's most wanted list.
OneCoin, a Ponzi scheme that never launched a blockchain, ran from 2014 to roughly 2017, and allegedly fleeced victims of around $4 billion.