Ruja Ignatova: Everything you should know about the ‘CryptoQueen’

Ruja Ignatova, widely known as the “CryptoQueen,” is among the FBI’s top 10 most wanted criminals, accused of involvement in a massive fraud scheme.

The 44-year-old from Bulgaria has been missing without a trace since October 2017 and the FBI has offered a $5 million (about R90 million) reward for information that could lead to her arrest and conviction.

HERE’S WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT RUJA IGNATOVA

Ignatova founded OneCoin Ltd, a Bulgaria-based company that marketed a purported cryptocurrency. To execute the scheme, Ignatova allegedly made false statements and representations to individuals to solicit investments in OneCoin.

According to the FBI, she allegedly instructed victims to transmit investment funds to OneCoin accounts to purchase OneCoin packages, causing victims to send wire transfers representing these investments. Throughout the scheme, OneCoin is believed to have defrauded victims out of more than $4 billion.

The CryptoQueen served as OneCoin’s top leader through October 2017. On October 25, 2017, Ignatova traveled from Sofia, Bulgaria, to Athens, Greece, via a low-cost airline and disappeared without a trace.

On October 12, 2017, Ignatova was charged in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and a federal warrant was issued for her arrest. On February 6, 2018, a superseding indictment was issued charging Ignatova with one count each of Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud, Wire Fraud, conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering, conspiracy to Commit Securities Fraud, and Securities Fraud.

The FBI has offered a R90 million reward for information on Ruja Ignatova who is allegedly hiding in South Africa. Source: FBI.

According to Luxembourg Times, evidence allegedly emerged in Bulgaria that Ignatova had been murdered by former accomplices from the Bulgarian underworld back in 2018 and that her body had been dismembered and dumped in the Ionian Sea. However, German authorities examined the Bulgarian documents. They established that the man who allegedly carried out the contract killing of Ignatova was actually in prison in the Netherlands at the time of Ignatova’s alleged killing.

Ignatova’s associates have been convicted, and some have already been released. These include her brother, Konstantin Ignatov, who pleaded guilty to continuing to run the OneCoin scam in a managerial capacity after her disappearance and is now free again after spending three years in jail in the United States.

German publication Der Spiegel reported that South African security sources had tipped off filmmaker Johan von Mirbach, who made a documentary about the Cryptoqueen, that she had been spotted in an affluent suburb in ​​Cape Town.