Bogus 'Bitcoin killer' Co-Founder Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud, Money Laundering

Karl Greenwood, co-founder of “Bitcoin killer” pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges on Friday.
Karl Greenwood was arrested at his island residence in Thailand in 2018 and extradited to the United States.

Karl Greenwood a co-founder of the fraudulent cryptocurrency OneCoin, a pyramid scheme that netted $ 4 billion from investors worldwide, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges, U.S. prosecutors said Friday. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison

Touted as a “Bitcoin killer,” prosecutors said the purported cryptocurrency co-founded by Ruja Ignatova and Karl Sebastian Greenwood in 2014 in Bulgaria was worthless. Though it was marketed as a cryptocurrency, it was never mined using computers and there was no public and verifiable blockchain. The value of OneCoin was not set by supply and demand, but by its operators, they said.

Greenwood the 45-year-old, was arrested at his island residence in Thailand in 2018 and extradited to the United States. He pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Manhattan.

“Greenwood’s lies were designed with one goal, to get everyday people all over the world to part with their hard-earned money — real money — and to line his own pockets to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams

The Bulgarian citizen was included on the list of the top 10 most wanted fugitives in June. The FBI offered over $100,000 for information leading to her arrest. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) managed to find her out of joint attempts for arrest by U.S. and European law enforcement way back in October 2017 and remains at large.

Alleged that a woman called the cryptoqueen sold a counterfeit cryptocurrency alongside a fugitive in the united states. Karl greenwood, 45, was arrested in thailand in 2018 and extradited to the u. S. For his role in selling the purported cryptocurrency oneco.

— Mehmet Galaviz (@GalavizMehmet) December 16, 2022

Three people who are associated with the OneCoin founder, Ruja Ignatova have appeared in a German court facing charges over their alleged roles in a multibillion-dollar fraud operation. Cryproqueen’s associates are accused of money laundering, fraud, and banking crimes.

Though Ignatova boasted that OneCoin would be “the Bitcoin killer,” she and Greenwood referred to it as “trashy coin” in email correspondence. In one email, Greenwood referred to investors as idiots.