Forsage Co-Founder Extradited to U.S., Pleads Not Guilty

Ukrainian national Olena Oblamska was extradited from Thailand and on May 11 pleaded not guilty in federal court in Portland to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud tied to an alleged $340 million Forsage Ponzi scheme. A magistrate judge ordered her detained pending a four-day jury trial set to begin July 14. Oblamska, 42, who has used the online name “Lola Ferrari,” faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

Thai law enforcement took Oblamska into custody in February after officers raided a condominium in the Chalong subdistrict of Phuket and seized phones, computers, a laptop, an iPad and documents. Court filings indicate she had been believed to be in Bali and that earlier filings misidentified her nationality.

A federal grand jury in Oregon returned an indictment in February 2023 charging four people with operating Forsage. The charging document alleges the founders launched Forsage in January 2020 and marketed it as a decentralized investment platform running on Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain and Tron smart contracts. Investors purchased “slots” that automatically routed funds to earlier participants; prosecutors say that structure functioned as a Ponzi scheme.

The complaint alleges the founders siphoned a portion of investor funds into blockchain wallets they controlled through a component called the “xGold” smart contract. Blockchain analysis cited by prosecutors shows more than 80% of participants in Forsage's Ethereum program received less Ether than they deposited and that over half recovered nothing.

Prosecutors dispute promotional claims that the platform created 50 millionaires, saying only a single user identifier, which they allege was controlled by the defendants, received more than $1 million in cryptocurrency from Forsage.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil enforcement action in August 2022 naming 11 people tied to Forsage, including the four alleged founders and several U.S.-based promoters. The subsequent criminal indictment was described by the Justice Department as the first criminal case targeting a decentralized finance-related Ponzi operation.

Three co-defendants remain at large: Vladimir Okhotnikov, Mikhail Sergeev and Sergey Maslakov. Court records identify Okhotnikov as the group's operational leader; a court in Tbilisi in 2024 sentenced him in absentia to 10 years in prison for laundering $1.1 million in proceeds tied to the project. U.S. authorities continue to seek extradition or surrender of the remaining defendants.

The investigation involves the FBI's Portland Field Office, the U.S. Secret Service and Homeland Security Investigations offices in New York and Bangkok. The Justice Department has urged Forsage investors who lost funds to come forward as potential victims. Oblamska's detention hearing and pretrial proceedings are scheduled to continue before the July trial date.