In July 2022 Ruja Ignatova, the self-styled ‘Cryptoqueen’ behind a pyramid scheme known as OneCoin, was positioned on the FBI’s High 10 Most Needed listing. Accused of defrauding buyers of an quantity estimated at between $3.6 to 4.5 billion, the Bulgarian-born Ignatova disappeared in 2017. In June final 12 months got here a brand new growth: The FBI elevated the present reward of $250,000 to a whopping $5 million for any info that results in her arrest.
The query is why and, in line with a kind of who’ve spent the time investigating this story, it is all about turning the pinnacle of somebody in her entourage. “We examined a few of her connections to organized crime teams, and many individuals imagine that if Dr Ruja continues to be in hiding, it is going to be with their safety,” says Jamie Bartlett, the journalist behind the BBC podcast sequence The Lacking Cryptoqueen. “$100,000 would not persuade a junior member of a criminal offense syndicate or a private bodyguard to name the FBI’s hotline—it’s miles too dangerous. However $5 million simply would possibly.
“So to me, the elevated reward is an indication that the FBI are actually refocusing their efforts on the individuals round Dr Ruja, attempting to tempt her shut associates to get in contact. We’ll most likely know inside just a few weeks if it’s labored.”
Bartlett mentioned the above in July 2024 when the brand new reward quantity was introduced. Seven months down the road there’s been no main breakthrough, however there have been some developments. Earlier than we get onto these, nevertheless, let’s briefly go over what the OneCoin fraud was.
OneCoin appeared in 2014 and was basically a multi-level advertising rip-off, however with crypto on the coronary heart, and a kind of schemes the place individuals earn commissions for getting others to grow to be “buyers.” A reasonably simple pyramid scheme, in different phrases—however Ignatova was the important thing issue behind its spectacular development. Extremely educated, fabulously dressed, persuasive, charming, and able to securing big investments from her targets.
Ignatova and her associates managed to maintain the looks of legitimacy round OneCoin for a number of years earlier than regulators began getting suspicious. The OneCoin alternate was closed in 2017 and Ignatova disappeared: She hasn’t been seen since. The cash misplaced to the rip-off is estimated at as much as $4.5 billion, and Ignatova was subsequently charged with a number of monetary crimes and been on the FBI’s Most Needed listing since 2022.
For the reason that FBI bumped up its reward to $5 million final 12 months, there have been some new components within the story. The primary is shocking solely inasmuch because it took this lengthy: In August final 12 months Ignatova plus seven different individuals and 4 corporations had been hit with a worldwide asset freeze.
All of the people and firms are alleged to have some connection to OneCoin, which in some instances are extra apparent than others. OneCoin co-founder Sebastian Greenwood is without doubt one of the people hit, however can also be at the moment having fun with a 20 12 months stretch in a US jail for his position within the fraud. Others focused by the freeze embody Brits Christopher Hamilton and Robert MacDonald, who’ve been accused by the US of laundering OneCoin-linked cash, although extradition makes an attempt have to this point failed.
It is within the particulars of hearings like this that the size of Ignatova’s fraud turns into much less summary. Two corporations based mostly in Guernsey had been topic to the order, each of which had been utilized by Ignatova to buy a penthouse in Kensington for a cool £13.5 million, with a £1.9 million residence thrown-in for the usage of her bodyguards.
That freeze might seem to be it is taken far too lengthy to occur, which is undoubtedly true, but it surely’s additionally a perform of the OneCoin fraud being so mind-bogglingly huge, and it taking years for the authorities to catch up. The fraud has additionally grow to be way more well-known about due to the dogged work of investigative journalists, and the victims themselves coming ahead (one group was particularly key to the asset freeze).
That wasn’t the one Ignatova information subsequent to the FBI bounty, but it surely’s probably the most stable. In any other case we’re within the realms of rumours a couple of lacking particular person, which evidently want taking with a full shaker of salt. Bellingcat and BBC investigative journalist Yoran Tsalov claimed in late November that Ignatova could also be hiding out in Russia, arguing she “has been linked to a number of individuals and pursuits linked to the Kremlin.”
Tsalov factors to an interview within the Lacking Cryptoqueen with Frank Schneider, Ignatova’s former safety adviser, which discusses these hyperlinks, and provides that a few of the corporations linked to laundering OneCoin cash are linked to the previous president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovich (who has been discovered responsible of treason in Ukraine and now lives in exile in Russia). Yanukovich’s corruption whereas in workplace is extensively documented.
However wait: Others say “nyet.” German filmmaker Johan von Mirbach has been investigating Ignatova for years and in a current documentary broadcast on German station WDR claims that she is alive, properly, and hiding out in Cape City in South Africa (thanks, CoinGeek). Mirbach claims that “safety brokers” in South Africa had come throughout details about Ignatova whereas investigating the homicide of 4 Bulgarians linked to the crime ring that, in different variations of the story, killed Ignatova years in the past.
Mirbach claims Ignatova has been noticed in Cape City, albeit not by him, however past that the case is essentially circumstantial. Ignatova’s brother Arthur, for instance, has labored in South Africa and frequently travelled there, together with one 12 months after her disappearance.
The extra lurid principle to finish all is that Ignatova is already useless: And has been for a very long time. The Bulgarian investigative reporting website BIRD revealed a report in 2023 based mostly on inner police paperwork from the nation, which say an informant overheard the brother-in-law of a drug lord saying Ignatova was murdered on a yacht off Greece, together with her physique chopped-up and chucked overboard. This was apparently to hide the Bulgarian drug lord’s involvement in OneCoin.
The FBI reckons Ignatova continues to be alive, travels with “armed guards,” and “might have had cosmetic surgery,” although as you get additional into this story and the Bulgarian crime networks and mafia bosses, a pretend nostril might seem to be the least shocking element. If Ignatova is on the market, and wasn’t killed way back, there most likely are extra terrifying individuals in search of her than the FBI.
Ignatova stays the one lady on the FBI’s most wished listing. Her seize could be value a life-changing sum of money and, if she is on the market, it’s a must to suppose in the end somebody’s going to overlook the OneCoin, and go for the actual factor.
