The Shell Company That Laundered Millions for Onecoin Is Located in the Roma Neighborhood

By: Michael Wilson

The Shell Company That Laundered Millions for Onecoin Is Located in the Roma Neighborhood

March 25, 2023 5:29 AM

Bulgarian media reported that a young Romani woman had received money from a firm used to hide the transfer of funds associated to Onecoin. This report comes after the U.S. government extradited the crypto pyramid scheme's head of legal and compliance on charges of aiding Onecoin in laundering millions of dollars through shell companies.


A woman who didn't know any better agreed to have a Onecoin-related company registered in her name

Former Onecoin head of legal and compliance Irina Dilkinska was extradited to the United States from Bulgaria on Monday. Millions of dollars in U.S. currency were allegedly moved through shell companies that Dilkinska allegedly helped set up as part of the crypto Ponzi scam that raised over $4 billion from investors worldwide.


The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that she would be extradited to the United States to face charges of money laundering and fraud in connection with her role in the massive crypto pyramid. These charges stem from the fact that one of her companies, B&N Consult, generated €200 million ($217 million at current rates) in 2015 and 2016.


Dilkinska oversaw the company during that time; it purported to provide "proprietary consulting services, support, and software solutions," but the DOJ claims it was actually used to conceal the movement of millions of dollars to bogus investment funds run by Mark Scott, the attorney accused of aiding Onecoin in its effort to launder $400 million.


According to a report shown on BTV on Wednesday, Irina Dilkinska, now 41 years old, gave up her executive position in 2017 and handed over B&N Consult to Margarita Kaneva, a 27-year-old from the Roma district of the town of Etropole in Western Bulgaria. The young lady says she has never heard of Onecoin or the money laundering allegations against Dilkinska.

 

Kaneva told a Bulgarian TV station that she had taken 300 leva (less than $170 at the time of writing) in exchange for allowing a firm to be created in her name many years earlier. In addition to being legally liable to B&N Consult, whose official address is now her own home in Etropole, the young woman is also legally responsible to another company.


Dilkinska's extradition process lasted nearly two years. Due to an Interpol red notice issued in late 2020, she was arrested in June 2021. Her lawyer, Nikolay Petrov, stated in an interview with Nova TV, another major Bulgarian network, that she worked for Onecoin in its Sofia headquarters for four to five years and had not seen the pyramid's mastermind, the frequently absent Ruja Ignatova, since 2016 or 2017.


Ignatova, also called "the missing Cryptoqueen," has been on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list since last year. She is a German citizen of Bulgarian and Romani descent, and she launched Onecoin in 2014. More than three million people were targeted by the scam, which ran from early 2014 until late 2016, when it was discovered. On October 25th, 2017, Ruja was last seen boarding an aircraft in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, heading for Athens.


Konstantin Ignatov, her brother and a co-founder of Onecoin, was arrested in the United States in 2019 and later pleaded guilty to crimes relating to Onecoin. He is currently living in witness protection. Karl Sebastian Greenwood, a co-founder who is Swedish and British, entered a guilty plea in December 2022. Gilbert Armenta, ex-boyfriend of Ruja Ignatova, received a five-year sentence for money laundering related to Onecoin.