A Ukrainian national indicted for her alleged role in a $340 million global cryptocurrency fraud scheme has appeared in court in Oregon after being extradited to the United States from Thailand.

Olena Oblamska, 42, also known as Lola Ferrari, is accused of being one of the four founders of claimed cryptocurrency investment platform Forsage, which prosecutors say was actually a Ponzi and pyramid scheme. Oblamska faces charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Thailand’s Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau arrested Oblamska at a condominium in central Phuket in February, but did not name her at the time. She was extradited to the U.S. in early May.

Oblamska made her initial appearance in federal court in Oregon before a U.S. magistrate judge on May 12. She was arraigned, pleaded not guilty, and ordered detained pending a jury trial scheduled to begin in July.

Prosecutors say she was the self-proclaimed “goddess” of a scheme that falsely promoted Forsage on the internet as a legitimate, low-risk and lucrative investment, before stealing about $340 million from victim-investors.

Dubai-based Russian Vladimir Okhotnikov allegedly directed, managed, and controlled Forsage’s operations. Okhotnikov, who also co-produced, co-wrote and co-starred in Kevin Spacey’s new film, “Holiguards Saga — The Portal of Force”, fled to the United Arab Emirates, while facing criminal charges from the U.S. and Georgian authorities.

ICIJ examined Okhotnikov’s business dealings as part of The Coin Laundry, an investigation into how the crypto industry has profited from illicit financial flows while leaving most of those harmed in the process without recourse.

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A quiet move by the Trump administration is allowing major crypto firms to skirt U.S. state regulators that have, for years, played a key role in policing dirty money in the industry.

Following a recent reinterpretation of banking rules, federal authorities have granted some crypto companies special, slimmed-down national banking licenses that come with minimal federal oversight and immunity against a wide range of actions by state regulators.

The sudden loss of state authority over some major crypto firms shocked Linda Conti, superintendent of Maine’s Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection, which oversees licensing of money-transmitting firms.

“We will not be able to address consumer complaints,” Conti told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in an email. “We will not be able to ask any questions of these entities.”

After a surge in cryptocurrency scams, Maine began requiring crypto firms to verify the ownership of certain digital wallets their customers were sending money to. The rule was intended to prevent would-be victims from paying scammers, but Coinbase, one of the world’s largest crypto players, cried foul.

In a letter asking federal authorities to intervene last September, the crypto exchange suggested Maine’s new rule was unconstitutional and “threatens the very purpose” of core features of cryptocurrency that offer users deep privacy. Coinbase has since converted to a national trust charter bank, meaning it will no longer need to comply with this rule in Maine, according to Conti.

Coinbase is not alone in obtaining the new licenses that can curtail state action.

Through a records request, ICIJ obtained a letter to Conti’s office from the crypto firm Fidelity Digital Assets, which recently converted to a national trust charter bank, telling local regulators that the company no longer needed its state money transmission license. In the letter, lawyers representing the crypto firm requested that Maine update Fidelity Digital Assets’ license in Maine to “Terminated – Surrendered / Canceled.”

Fidelity Digital Assets, the cryptocurrency arm of the investment management giant Fidelity, did not provide comment for this story.

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