The U.S. Department of Justice announced on April 13, 2026 that victims of OneCoin, a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme that stole more than $4 billion from an estimated 3.5 million people between 2014 and 2019, can now submit claims for partial compensation. The claims portal at onecoinremission.com accepts submissions through June 30, 2026. The available fund totals more than $40 million in forfeited assets, representing roughly one cent recovered for every dollar stolen. That figure reflects what has been confirmed as available for distribution at this stage; court-ordered forfeitures, including the $300 million forfeiture order attached to co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood's sentencing, do not always translate immediately or fully into collectible and distributable funds, and the remainder of ordered assets remains subject to ongoing recovery proceedings.

The compensation mechanism is a federal "petition for remission," the standard U.S. government process for returning seized criminal assets to fraud victims. No attorney is required, no filing fee applies, and claims can be submitted online, by phone at 1-833-421-9748, by email at [email protected], or by mail. Kroll Settlement Administration LLC is administering the process on behalf of the DOJ. Eligibility extends to anyone who purchased OneCoin between 2014 and 2019 and suffered a net monetary loss, meaning they put in more than they ever withdrew. Applicants must provide documentation of their losses.

"Victims are at the core of everything we do at the Department of Justice," said A. Tysen Duva, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division. Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and former Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, described the opening of claims as "an important step toward returning funds to those harmed." The DOJ also issued a direct warning: neither the department nor Kroll will ever ask victims to pay anything to participate. Given that OneCoin victims have historically been retargeted by follow-on scams, that caution is more than procedural.

What OneCoin Actually Was

OneCoin Ltd., headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria, was co-founded in 2014 by Ruja Ignatova, widely known as the "CryptoQueen," and Karl Sebastian Greenwood. The company sold tiered "educational packages" priced as high as roughly 225,000 euros, with commissions paid for recruiting new buyers. That multi-level marketing structure allowed the scheme to move quickly through tight-knit communities across Asia and Africa, with documented impact in India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Uganda, China, Vietnam, Pakistan, and parts of East Africa. The core fraud was simple: OneCoin had no real blockchain. Transactions were tracked in a private, centrally controlled database with no public ledger and no verifiable record. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, which run on open, auditable networks, OneCoin offered no way for participants to confirm that their coins existed at all.

Ignatova disappeared in October 2017 after boarding a flight from Sofia to Athens. She remains a fugitive. The FBI added her to its Ten Most Wanted list in June 2022, and the U.S. State Department is offering up to $5 million for information leading to her arrest. Greenwood pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering in December 2022 and was sentenced in September 2023 to 20 years in prison, with a $300 million forfeiture order attached. In August 2024, a UK court issued a global asset freeze against Ignatova and her associates.

The Regional Toll

For victims in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, the gap between what was lost and what is now available is especially stark. In India, police arrested 18 people at a OneCoin promotional event in Navi Mumbai in April 2017. Raids that followed froze ₹24.57 crore (approximately $3.32 million USD) across nine bank accounts. A subsequent operation seized another ₹24 crore (approximately $3.24 million USD). Indian authorities filed charges against 22 promoters and classified the operation as a clear Ponzi scheme.

In Uganda, OneCoin representatives specifically targeted rural farming communities during harvest season, when families had cash on hand. Reports documented people selling land and livestock to invest. Nigeria's central bank and the Bank of Uganda both published warnings about the scheme, but the advisories reached regulators faster than they reached the communities being recruited. The scheme also moved extensively through Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Pakistan, and parts of East Africa.

That geography creates a direct problem for the current claims process. The portal and phone line are U.S.-based. It has not been formally confirmed whether the remission process is explicitly open to non-U.S. nationals; while the DOJ's language implies a global victim pool, prospective claimants outside the United States should verify their eligibility directly with Kroll before filing. Victims in markets where transactions happened in cash, or where financial documentation is informal, face real barriers to meeting the evidentiary requirements. The June 30 deadline gives approximately 11 weeks from announcement, which may not be enough time for diaspora or rural victims who rely on informal information networks to learn about and navigate the process.

What Comes Next

The DOJ's move to process claims signals growing institutional seriousness about restitution in large-scale crypto fraud cases, a posture that appears likely to persist regardless of near-term shifts in the regulatory environment. But the math remains unfavorable. With $40 million available against $4 billion in documented losses, the fund covers roughly 1% of what was taken. Parallel civil litigation efforts, including a group action in the UK led by law firm Stephenson Harwood, may represent additional but uncertain avenues for recovery.

Ruja Ignatova's continued absence from custody means the full legal accounting for OneCoin is unfinished. Asset seizure proceedings in Guernsey's Royal Court remain active following a December 2025 deadline by which Ignatova was required to file objections, and the outcome of those proceedings remains uncertain. Any future recoveries tied to Ignatova could eventually supplement the current fund. For now, victims with documentation have until June 30 to file. Those without it face longer odds.