‘Cryptoqueen’ Sidekick Gets 20 Years For $4 Billion Ponzi (1)

The cofounder and main promoter of the $4 billion OneCoin pyramid scheme was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in one of the first and biggest criminal frauds involving cryptocurrency.

Karl Sebastian Greenwood, 46, was sentenced in New York Tuesday, after pleading guilty in December to creating and promoting a phony cryptocurrency. Greenwood was the wingman of Ruja Ignatova, the so-called “Cryptoqueen” and most wanted crypto fugitive in the world.

OneCoin offices in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2019.

Photographer: Cylonphoto/iStock Editorial/Shutterstock

US District Judge Edgardo Ramos called the fraud “massive in many respects,” noting that OneCoin had no blockchain, no real cryptocoin and no trading market. Victims ...