Irina Dilkinska was sentenced to four years in prison by US District Judge Edgardo Ramos for her role in the massive OneCoin fraud scheme.
OneCoin, which began operations in 2014 and is based in Sofia, Bulgaria, marketed and sold a fraudulent cryptocurrency of the same name through a global multi-level marketing (“MLM”) network. As a result of the misrepresentations made regarding OneCoin, victims invested over $4 billion in the fraudulent cryptocurrency.
Dilkinska previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
In 2014, Ruja Ignatova, a/k/a “the Cryptoqueen”, and Karl Sebastian Greenwood co-founded OneCoin, a company based in Sofia, Bulgaria that marketed a putative cryptocurrency of the same name, which was in actually a fraudulent pyramid scheme.
OneCoin operated as an MLM network through which members received commissions for recruiting others to purchase cryptocurrency packages. This MLM structure has influenced the rapid growth of the OneCoin membership network.
According to OneCoin’s promotional material, over three million people invested in fraudulent cryptocurrency packages. OneCoin records show that between the fourth quarter of 2014 and the fourth quarter of 2016 alone, OneCoin generated €4.037 billion in sales revenue and earned €2.735 billion in “profits”.
Dilkinska was the supposed Head of Legal and Compliance for OneCoin. However, instead of ensuring OneCoin complied with the law, he helped run its day-to-day operations and laundered money for OneCoin, including arranging the transfer of $110 million in OneCoin’s fraudulently obtained proceeds to a Cayman Islands entity.
In addition to the prison term, Dilkinska, 42, a citizen of Bulgaria, was sentenced to one month of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $111,440,000.