Bulgarian Woman Charged in $4B Crypto Fraud Case, Extradited to U.S.

Irina Dilkinska, a Bulgarian woman involved in the allegedly fraudulent crypto scheme OneCoin, has been extradited to the U.S. to face charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

Dilkinska was OneCoin's "supposed head of legal and compliance for the OneCoin cryptocurrency pyramid scheme," U.S. Attorney Damien Williams said in a Department of Justice announcement on Tuesday.

"[She] accomplished the exact opposite of her job title and allegedly enabled OneCoin to launder millions of dollars of illegal proceeds through shell companies," Williams said.

According to the Justice Department, OneCoin's victims were defrauded of over $4 billion in the scheme, which began operations in 2014.

Its co-founder Ruja Ignatova, known as "the Cryptoqueen," hasn't been seen since October 2017. She was added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Top Ten Most Wanted list in 2022, with the agency offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to her arrest.

Her co-founder Karl Greenwood pleaded guilty to federal U.S. charges of wire fraud and money laundering in December.

Read more: Was OneCoin’s Missing Cryptoqueen Murdered by Mobsters?