Olena Oblamska, a 42-year-old Ukrainian national identified as a co-founder of the Forsage cryptocurrency investment platform, has been extradited from Thailand and recently entered a plea of not guilty in federal court in Portland, Oregon. This marks her as the first among four co-defendants implicated in a $340 million Ponzi scheme to face charges in the U.S.
On May 11, Oblamska, who is also known online as ‘Lola Ferrari,’ was arraigned on a count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, as reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon. A magistrate judge has ordered her detention pending a jury trial set to commence on July 14.
Oblamska was apprehended in February during a raid by Thailand’s Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau at a condominium located in Phuket’s Chalong subdistrict. The operation resulted in the seizure of multiple electronic devices, including phones and a laptop, along with various documents. Initially, Thai authorities did not disclose her identity, and the FBI and Department of Justice remained silent about her detention for several months, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
Previously believed to be in hiding in Bali, Indonesia, Oblamska had been misidentified as Russian in earlier legal documents. She is now the first of the four Forsage co-defendants to be taken into U.S. custody following an indictment by a federal grand jury in Oregon in February 2023. The other co-defendants, Vladimir Okhotnikov, Mikhail Sergeev, and Sergey Maslakov, all Russian nationals, are still at large.
Prosecutors claim that the four founders initiated Forsage in January 2020, promoting it as a decentralized investment platform utilizing Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, and Tron smart contracts. The indictment alleges that once an investor purchased a ‘slot,’ their funds were automatically directed to earlier participants, characteristic of a Ponzi scheme. Additionally, it is claimed that a portion of the investor funds was diverted into wallets controlled by the founders through the project’s ‘xGold’ smart contract.
According to blockchain analytics cited by the Justice Department, over 80% of investors in Forsage’s Ethereum program did not receive back more ETH than they invested, with more than half receiving nothing at all. Prosecutors contest the founders’ assertions that 50 participants became millionaires via the platform, stating that only one user ID, under the control of the defendants, garnered more than $1 million in cryptocurrency from the operation.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed civil fraud charges against 11 individuals associated with Forsage in August 2022, including the four founders and several U.S.-based promoters referred to as the ‘Crypto Crusaders.’ The subsequent criminal indictment in February 2023 was labeled by prosecutors as the first criminal case targeting a so-called DeFi Ponzi scheme.
Okhotnikov, who prosecutors allege led the operations at Forsage, has fled to Dubai and has emerged in unexpected roles since then. He co-wrote, co-produced, and starred in the film ‘Holiguards Saga — The Portal of Force,’ directed by the disgraced actor Kevin Spacey, which premiered at a private event in Berlin in February, as reported by Variety last year. In 2024, a Tbilisi court sentenced him in absentia to 10 years in prison for laundering $1.1 million in proceeds from Forsage, according to the ICIJ’s Coin Laundry investigation. Okhotnikov has consistently asserted his innocence.
If found guilty, Oblamska could face up to 20 years in federal prison, along with three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. The investigation is being conducted by the FBI’s Portland Field Office, the U.S. Secret Service, and Homeland Security Investigations in New York and Bangkok. The Justice Department is calling on Forsage investors who suffered losses to come forward as potential victims.
Source: The Block
