Olena Oblamska, a Ukrainian national and co-founder of the Forsage crypto investment platform, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after being extradited from Thailand to the United States. Appearing before a federal judge in Portland, Oregon on May 11, the 42‑year‑old—known online as “Lola Ferrari”—was ordered detained pending a four‑day jury trial scheduled for July 14.
U.S. prosecutors allege that Forsage operated as a $340 million global Ponzi and pyramid scheme, collecting funds from retail investors by promoting itself as a decentralized finance (DeFi) project running on the Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, and Tron blockchains. A February 2023 federal indictment charged Oblamska and three other founders—Vladimir Okhotnikov, Mikhail Sergeev, and Sergey Maslakov—with creating smart contracts that automatically routed new investor deposits to earlier participants, a classic Ponzi structure. Investigators also found a backdoor in the xGold smart contract that diverted user funds to wallets controlled by the defendants.
Blockchain analysis cited in court documents shows that more than 80% of Forsage participants on Ethereum received less ETH than they deposited, and over half received no payout at all before the scheme collapsed. Authorities dispute claims that dozens of users became millionaires; only one account linked to the founders exceeded $1 million in crypto. The Securities and Exchange Commission had already filed a parallel civil case against the founders and several U.S.‑based promoters in August 2022, while regulators in the Philippines and Montana had issued cease‑and‑desist orders as early as 2020. Despite these warnings, the platform continued to operate.
Oblamska’s extradition follows her arrest by Thai cyber‑crime police in Phuket in February. She is the first of the four defendants to appear in a U.S. courtroom; Okhotnikov, described as the operational leader, remains at large in Dubai and was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison in Georgia in 2024 for laundering Forsage proceeds. If convicted, Oblamska faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The DOJ is urging investors who lost money to contact authorities as the investigation, led by the FBI, Secret Service, and Homeland Security Investigations, continues.
