German police believe that OneCoin cofounder Ruja Ignatova could be alive and are following leads in South Africa to trace her whereabouts, Der Spiegel reports.

US authorities have said that Ignatova spearheaded OneCoin, and that it was a $4 billion (R71 billion) Ponzi scheme.

OneCoin offered commissions to members for recruiting others to buy packages of its worthless cryptocurrency.

At its height, OneCoin claimed to have more than 3 million members worldwide.

The FBI and US State Department increased a reward for information leading to Ignatova’s arrest and conviction to $5 million (R89 million) earlier this year.

The reward was initially set at $100,000 (R1.8 million) when she was added to the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ list of the ten most-wanted fugitives in June 2022.