Forsage co-founder pleads not guilty in $340M crypto Ponzi case

A co-founder of the Forsage crypto investment platform has pleaded not guilty in a U.S. federal court after being extradited from Thailand in a case tied to an alleged $340 million Ponzi scheme.

According to a notice released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon, Ukrainian national Olena Oblamska, also known online as “Lola Ferrari,” appeared before a federal court in Portland on May 11 on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Court records show a magistrate judge ordered her to remain in custody ahead of a four-day jury trial scheduled for July 14.

Authorities in Thailand arrested Oblamska in February during a raid on a condominium in Phuket’s Chalong district, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported on Sunday. Thai officers seized phones, computer equipment, documents, an iPad, and a laptop during the operation, according to the report. While Thai authorities did not publicly identify the suspect at the time, ICIJ said the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice declined to confirm her detention in the months that followed.

Earlier court filings had described Oblamska as Russian and suggested she may have been hiding in Bali, Indonesia. With her transfer to the United States now completed, she has become the first of four Forsage founders charged in the case to appear in a U.S. courtroom.

Back in February 2023, a federal grand jury in Oregon charged Oblamska alongside Vladimir Okhotnikov, Mikhail Sergeev, and Sergey Maslakov for allegedly operating Forsage as a global Ponzi and pyramid scheme. Prosecutors said the platform collected roughly $340 million from investors after promoting itself as a decentralized investment project running on Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, and Tron.

Prosecutors say most investors lost money

Court documents filed by the Justice Department alleged that Forsage sold users “slots” through smart contracts that automatically routed incoming funds to earlier participants, which prosecutors described as a classic Ponzi structure. Investigators also accused the founders of building a backdoor into the project’s xGold smart contract to divert user deposits into wallets under their control.

Blockchain analysis cited in the indictment showed that more than 80% of participants in Forsage’s Ethereum program received less ETH than they deposited, while over half reportedly received no payout at all before the scheme collapsed.

Federal prosecutors also disputed Forsage’s public claims that dozens of users became millionaires through the platform. According to the indictment, only one account controlled by the defendants themselves received more than $1 million in cryptocurrency.

At the same time, the Securities and Exchange Commission pursued a parallel civil case against 11 individuals connected to Forsage in August 2022. The SEC’s complaint targeted the four founders along with several U.S.-based promoters known as the “Crypto Crusaders,” seeking civil penalties and disgorgement.

When the criminal indictment was announced in 2023, U.S. Attorney Natalie Wight said the investigation involved months of work tracing the movement of investor funds across blockchain networks and coordinating with multiple law enforcement agencies.

Three co-defendants remain outside U.S. custody. Prosecutors identified Vladimir Okhotnikov as the operational leader of Forsage and said he fled to Dubai after the scheme came under investigation. ICIJ reported that a court in Tbilisi sentenced Okhotnikov in absentia to 10 years in prison in 2024 for laundering $1.1 million tied to Forsage proceeds.

Separate reporting from Variety last year also linked Okhotnikov to “Holiguards Saga — The Portal of Force,” a film directed by disgraced actor Kevin Spacey that premiered at a private event in Berlin. Okhotnikov has denied wrongdoing.

If convicted, Oblamska could face up to 20 years in federal prison, along with three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. The FBI’s Portland Field Office, the U.S. Secret Service, and Homeland Security Investigations offices in New York and Bangkok are continuing to investigate the case, while the Justice Department has asked Forsage investors who lost money to contact authorities as potential victims.