Ruja Plamenova Ignatova (Bulgarian: , romanized:Rua Plamenova Ignatova; born 30 May 1980) is a Bulgarian-born German citizen and convicted fraudster. Here's an example: Ruja bought a very large property in central Sofia. OneCoin,. Greenwood was arrested in 2018. "I've never told her directly that it's not going to work - that there is no more money, there's no more hope," he tells me. And then in 2017, the ownership of Artefix was sold to an unknown man in his 20s. Another lead comes our way when we pay a visit to a bizarre OneCoin beauty pageant in Bucharest. It was a cryptocurrency company, and it had been running for a while - but it didn't have a blockchain. From a tiny fragment of a poster advertising a tennis tournament, an expert identified the park in which one photograph was taken. The FCA did not respond to the BBC's request to comment. The reason so many people are excited by Bitcoin is that it solves that problem. It wasn't a place we'd previously thought of looking. OneCoins other co-founder, Sebastian Greenwood, also fled. (Her) lies were designed with one goal, to get everyday people all over the world to part with their hard-earned money.. Armed with a microphone and several photographs of Dr Ruja, we headed off to Frankfurt and searched old addresses and gated neighbourhoods said to be the most expensive in Germany. Previously, the property belonged to a company called Abbots House Penthouse Limited, based in Guernsey, a well-known tax haven with very little government oversight. Dr Ruja was still travelling the world to sell her vision - hopping from Macau to Dubai to Singapore, filling out arenas, pulling in new investors. We already knew that Dr Ruja spent some of her childhood in Schramberg, southern Germany. Any criticism or awkward questions were actively discouraged. "So we need you to build a blockchain," he went on. Before too long they had passed 100,000 - a 10-fold return. He has denied obtaining the documents and said: "When the Bulgarians participated at certain Europol meetings, it only took hours for her to get a complete rundown and get the minutes of what was said in those meetings. "I was thinking: 'What is my job going to be? In March 2016 it was announced that the exchange would be closing down for two weeks for maintenance. In 2012, she was convicted of fraud in Germany in connection with the acquisition of a steel company obtained by Ruja and her father. She feels guilty towards those who she introduced to OneCoin, she says, but also towards her late father, a miner, who worked hard all his life in horrible conditions, and left her the money that she then gave away. I felt proud of her.". Then a few days later we received a call from a trusted source we cannot identify. I don't want those people I introduced into OneCoin to see me moving around. Investigative reporter Jamie Bartlett, host ofThe Missing Cryptoqueenpodcast, in conjunction with the BBC, initially flagged a tenuous link between the fraudster and the penthouse. [16] In 2014, she founded a pyramid scheme called OneCoin. The company went bankrupt shortly after acquisition under dubious circumstances. And literally my legs just went, and I fell on the floor,'" she says. Frantic calls and messages went unanswered. This is clearly a question for a professional, which is why Georgia and I went to see private investigator Alan McLean. Authorities say she may have. This scam is estimated to be well over four billion dollars. She was added to the FBI Ten Most Wanted in June 2022. You told me it was a cryptocurrency company.'". When I ask for more details, he replies: "No, I cannot tell that because I don't want to take that risk with our lives.". A book about this case was written by British investigative reporter Jamie Bartlett and published in June 2022. "Maybe you can tell her Maybe" he says. "British companies are the companies of choice," he comments. "I think she was so scared in the fall of 2017 that she decided to skip.". A change in the rules of Companies House the UK equivalent of ASIC forced Ignatova out of hiding, as she had to be named in full rather than just her shell company. I sell a box to my friends, Georgia and Phil, and make a small cut. Didn't seem to be the contents of the famous 3rd floor cash room :) Looked as if the company is moving out, but who knows pic.twitter.com/vH0XzMFef0. In 2017, Ignatova was already under investigation by the City of London Police, the German authorities, as well as the FBI and Europol, for a string of charges including securities and wire fraud and money laundering. The Federal Criminal Police Office announced a 5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. "In my opinion, for what it's worth, she's moving around the Mediterranean," he says. The narco-boss is said currently to reside in Dubai, having evaded Bulgarian authorities. Others told us she was dead - which does remain a possibility. The FBI launched their most wanted list in 1950 and of the 529 fugitives that have earned an honorable mention, shes one of just 11 women. The agent replied that this was correct. "I'm devastated for all the UK victims," Jen McAdam told me, when she heard the news. Following the success of Bitcoin and the subsequent explosion of its price, investors who bought early at a low price made huge returns. Did we get close to her? She never appeared. Bjorn Bjercke is a blockchain expert and he was the first person who started speaking publicly against OneCoin. A small beaten down van parked in front and was filled with various office equipment and supplies. But we were still surprised when, during our internet searches, Frankfurt started appearing over and over again. Members could later exchange these educational packages, ranging from 100 euros to 118,000 euros, for OneCoins. Igor Alberts is wearing black-and-gold everything. In early 2019, she was charged in absentia by U.S. authorities for wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering. There is some very clever maths behind all this, but this means that Bitcoins can't be faked, they can't be hacked and can't be double-spent. There were limitations as to how many OneCoins could be exchanged for any other currency per day. "I've been telling her it's changing. Following her studies, she became a consultant for McKinsey and Co. Ruja Ignatova, the self-described "Cryptoqueen.". "It's hard. She had got hold of a "big passport", he said, and asked him to get her plane tickets to Vienna, then Athens. I don't want to be the person that breaks the news to Daniel's mother. [27][28], Ignatova was married to the German lawyer Bjorn Strehl, with whom she had a daughter in 2016.[2][29]. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency and is still the biggest and best-known - its rise in value from a few cents to hundreds of dollars per coin by mid-2016 had given rise to a frenzy of excitement among investors. No other law enforcement bodies in attendance would confirm how the information got out. Read about our approach to external linking. [25] The FBI followed up with an episode of its podcast and YouTube series Inside the FBI devoted to Ignatova and the OneCoin case. The inescapable conclusion was that those rising numbers on the OneCoin website were meaningless - they were just numbers typed into a computer by a OneCoin employee. "I can't discuss that. Missing Cryptoqueen joins FBI ten most wanted, Revealed: The Cryptoqueen's 13.5m London penthouse. But besides loving books, he was also a master book thief. "There was no other way," he says ruefully. "If you have your money and it's taken away from you, life becomes stressful," she says. "You will find her," he said. Her biggest aspiration was just to be rich. Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. She is best known as the founder of a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme known as OneCoin, which The Times has described as "one of the biggest scams in history". This is a pyramid scheme, and it's very illegal. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. When there is nothing of value to sell, though, and all the money is made by recruiting other people, it is illegal and goes by another name: a pyramid scheme. Find out who her friends were, what her lifestyle was like, her family.". Dr. Ruja Ignatova was born in Sofia, Bulgaria on May 30, 1980. She watched excitedly on the OneCoin website as the value of her coins steadily rose. ", I ask him why not. The US Department of Prosecutions has charged Ignatova with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud. Taking seriously Alan McLean's advice about studying Dr Ruja's life before OneCoin, Georgia and I turn to the internet, which fortunately never forgets anything. Read about our approach to external linking. Several OneCoin events took place in the UK after the FCA took down the warning, and money continued to be invested. Bulgarian-born German citizen Ruja Ignatova, FBIs list of the 10 most-wanted fugitives. 16 months' suspended imprisonment for a previous case. Listen to The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast, with Jamie Bartlett and producer Georgia Catt, on BBC Sounds. There, she recruited members to promote OneCoin and sell to their friends and relatives. "OneCoins principals continue to operate from Bulgaria," according to Dr Levy. It's not clear who Bjorn and Igor are talking about, or whether they are even talking about the same people, but the US Department of Justice claims to have evidence of a link between Dr Ruja's brother, Konstantin Ignatov - who took over the running of OneCoin when Ruja disappeared - and "significant players in Eastern European organised crime". A towel covers the front door, and a few metres away is her land, where she grows her own food and sells anything left over at the local market. Blame is not easy to apportion. The family had saved about 3,000 to buy a maize store so that Daniel's mother could stop spending every day in the fields. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Both companies were founded by Ignatova and Greenwood. [18] In 2019, her brother Konstantin Ignatov pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering in connection with the scheme. In 2016, Ms. McAdam had been in bed due to a chronic illness and she was unable to work. There were rumours of course - lots of them. Then Its Leader Vanished", "BigCoin & BNA: The original OneCoin Ponzi points", "Co-founder of multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency pyramid scheme "OneCoin" pleads guilty | Internal Revenue Service", "Ruja Ignatova: Leaked police notes may have alerted FBI-wanted Cryptoqueen", "Krypto-Betrug mit OneCoin: Weiteres Verfahren und Durchsuchungen", "International - Betrug in Millionenhhe", "RED NOTICE: Ruja Ignatova, dubbed 'the Cryptoqueen', is #wanted by Germany @bka for fraud and money laundering. Some feared she'd been killed or kidnapped by the banks, who - they'd been told - had most to fear from the cryptocurrency revolution. "Acting on behalf of investors and creditors of OneCoin," Levy described it as one of the largest and most successful financial pyramids in history, seeking an investigation of misfeasance by the Bulgarian government for taking no steps to seize assets from OneCoin including real estate, bank accounts, and 230,000 Bitcoins.. In an ideal world, regulators would take action to protect consumers from scams like OneCoin. I ask her how much she earned from selling OneCoin and she says it was 3,000 - 1,800 of which she received in cash, and which she used to buy more OneCoin. Now comes the story of Ruja Ignatova, the Bulgarian-born 'Cryptoqueen': an Oxford graduate who made billions by extorting normal people seduced by her cryptocurrency OneCoin. He claimed to be a good Samaritan, someone who had studied OneCoin carefully and wanted to speak to people who had invested. 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