FBI's most wanted: Delving into the life of 'crypto queen’ Ruja Ignatova
Premium- Distinguished by her exemplary academic background and a penchant for the high life, the Bulgarian-born OneCoin co-founder remains elusive to date
Just like the character Annie in the chartbuster track ‘Smooth Criminal’ released by the ‘King of Pop' Michael Jackson, investors in the touted Bitcoin-rivalling OneCoin token didn’t realize when they got scammed by its charming, brilliant and nefarious co-founder, Ruja Ignatova.
Amassing over 3.5 million members who were basically purchasing instructional packages in lieu of the OneCoin crypto token, a sum of over $4 billion was eventually siphoned off by her when she seemingly vanished just prior to a mega OneCoin event in 2017.
Featuring on the FBI’s most-wanted list, Ruja also has an Interpol Red Notice issued against her for crimes perpetuated while at the helm of OneCoin Ltd. and OneLife Network Ltd, the companies behind the Ponzi scheme which she co-founded along with Sebastian Greenwood in 2014.
Described by The Times as “one of the biggest scams in history", the OneCoin fiasco left the world both shocked and amazed at the sheer finesse with which Ruja engineered every single detail leading to her disappearance.
Hailing from Bulgaria and specializing in private international law from prestigious institutions like the University of Konstanz and Oxford University, Ruja had the credentials to back her ambitions and also boasted of work experience at reputed organizations such as McKinsey & Company.
Married to a German lawyer Björn Strehl, she gave birth to a daughter in 2016 and garnered brownie points from her investor base when she thanked them in a video posted immediately after.
Adept at charming and exciting her audience with her effusive personality, Ruja was hailed as the ‘crypto queen’ for her larger-than-life aura and was quite obsessed with holding grand events to promote her cryptocurrency.
However, unaware of most of her investors, Ruja was preparing her exit plan while luring more investors to buy the OneCoin token and even tried to rope in her husband to implicate someone else when she fled with more than 230,000 Bitcoins.
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While Ruja followed the typical pyramid structure to entice initial investors to sell the OneCoin token to other buyers for a healthy commission, what is even more surprising is that the token was never listed on any crypto exchange and didn’t even have a blockchain underpinning its transactional framework.
Moreover, Bulgaria's Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) issued a warning on the potential risks involved in cryptocurrencies way back in September 2015, with a clear citation of the OneCoin token as an example for investors to be wary of.
Still, that didn’t stop Ruja from conniving with her partners to promise faster, cheaper, and safer transactions than the Bitcoin network and even marketed OneCoin as a ‘Bitcoin-killer’.
While all the negative media coverage should have discouraged investors, Ruja cleverly circumvented all these actions and took calls such as ceasing all activity in Bulgaria, routing all transactions to foreign banks, and a series of similar tactics to evade authorities while roping in even more investors with her enigmatic persona.
With reports speculating her to be hopping between luxury penthouses and yachts to outrun the authorities, Ruja was last known to have traveled to Athens before disappearing from the public eye.
She left behind all known relatives, including her daughter, husband, and even her brother, Konstantin Ignatov, who is a co-conspirator in the OneCoin scam.
While Ruja’s brother Konstantin, co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood, and its lawyer Mark Scott have all been arrested and subsequently prosecuted, her husband continues to be under constant surveillance and has been the subject of multiple raids.
The 42-year-old is believed to even have had links with powerful Russian and Bulgarian criminal syndicates and unverified reports claim to have sighted her in Dubai, Thailand, and other tourist hotspots since her disappearance.
Despite her obvious criminal status and having caused despair to millions of investors, Ruja became even more infamous when BBC Radio 5 Live released the podcast ‘The Missing Cryptoqueen’ in 2019, a hit with the general public and cryptocurrency fans worldwide.
While some theorize that she may have undergone plastic surgery to change her appearance and has even assumed an alternate identity, the mystery surrounding her disappearance continues to captivate the world.
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