Ms. Ruja Ignatova, also known as the ‘missing Cryptoqueen’, has been named a most-wanted fugitive by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The Bulgarian woman is wanted for her alleged role in defrauding investors through a cryptocurrency company OneCoin. The federal investigators accuse the fugitive of using the scheme to defraud victims out of more than $4 billion.

FBI said that Ms. Ignatova is the only woman on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list and is the 11th in its 72-year history.

According to the FBI, “Ms. Ignatova, a Bulgarian lawyer, claimed to have invented a cryptocurrency to rival Bitcoin. She and others allegedly made false statements while soliciting investments and promoted OneCoin through a multi-level marketing strategy.”

OneCoin also claimed to have a private blockchain, as opposed to a public and verifiable one that other virtual currencies have, and the value of OneCoin was determined by the company rather than market demand, the FBI noted.

The FBI alleges that Ms. Ignatova ultimately persuaded investors to send her billions of dollars, capitalizing on the buzz around cryptocurrencies, before disappearing in 2017 after a federal warrant was issued for her arrest.

“Investigators believe Ms. Ignatova may have been tipped off that she was under investigation by U.S. and international authorities. On October 25, 2017, she traveled from Sofia, Bulgaria, to Athens, Greece, and has not been seen since,” as per the FBI.

Ms. Ignatova was indicted in February 2018 on one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and securities fraud.

The move comes after Europol added Ms. Ignatova to its most-wanted list earlier this year. The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) is the law enforcement agency of the European Union (EU) formed in 1998 to handle criminal intelligence and combat serious international organized crime and terrorism.

Ms. Ignatova has been missing since 2017 when US officials signed an arrest warrant and investigators began closing in on her. She was known to travel throughout Eastern Europe and the Mideast and may have had plastic surgery to alter her appearance, the FBI stated.

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