A high-profile trial in Germany - for the first time in the country and, possibly, in the world, a case of fraud with cryptocurrencies is being heard. True, it passes without the main person involved: in the land court in Munster, there will be no Ruja Ignatova, who modestly called herself the "crypto queen".
For several years, a native of Bulgaria with a German passport collected money from depositors from Germany and around the world, selling them the Onecoin cryptocurrency. Only this currency, it seems, she just invented, surprisingly long leading millions of gullible depositors by the nose: in Germany alone, tens of thousands of people were affected by Ignatova's activities.
Who ended up in the dock in Munster and who didn't
In the dock in Munster, a married couple from the city of Greven (this is the north-west of Germany) and a lawyer from Munich (south of the country). The couple transferred depositors 'money for" cryptocurrency " to Ruzha's accounts. Only through these intermediaries, the "crypto queen" received 320 million euros for Onecoin. The court will have to prove that the Greventsy knew about the fraudulent nature of the transactions - they deny this.
The second person involved in the trial is a Munich lawyer who, instead of Ms. Ignatova, signed papers and made large purchases so that the head of the company would not shine unnecessarily. He is accused of money laundering. But neither the couple nor the lawyer played a key role in the Onecoin scam: the main character was exactly Ruzha Ignatova, for whose arrest an international FBI warrant has long been issued, but who nevertheless manages to hide since 2017.
As a child, Ignatova moved with her parents and younger brother Konstantin from Bulgaria to the German Black Forest, studied at Oxford and defended her doctoral dissertation at the University of Konstanz in Germany. Before the scam with cryptocurrencies, she managed to work in a well-known consulting company McKinsey, and also made an illegal deal with the purchase and sale of a steel plant in the Bavarian Algo, leaving the buyer with a ruined and looted plant.
This is the only offense for which Ignatova was convicted in Germany in 2016, and even then she was given a year and two months of imprisonment only on probation. Ruja's new scam did not interest German justice at that time, although by that time she had already turned from a factory owner into the very "crypto queen".
Rouge, who promised that "everyone will forget about bitcoin"
The Onecoin pyramid scheme was created in July 2014. The promise of the Ruzhi startup is a cryptocurrency that is "understandable to any" person, more convenient and easier to handle than others. Investors were offered to buy so-called "training packages" that allegedly included cryptocurrency and instructions on how it works. The cost of such packages ranges from several hundred to 118 thousand euros. If someone who had already bought the "package" persuaded someone else to buy a new currency, they received a good percentage of the transaction.
During one of the advertising speeches in 2015, Rouge stated that, unlike other cryptocurrencies, Onecoin is backed by gold, hidden so securely that even she does not know where it is. The money raised was gradually enough for more and more pompous advertising events - in 2016, the company booked Wembley Stadium for its investors for the evening, where Rouge loudly promised that "in two years everyone will forget about bitcoin." The post is still hanging in Youtube.
Alarm signals were ignored by the vast majority of investors even when strong arguments were publicly expressed in favor of the fact that Onecoin is a dummy, which is not based on the blockchain - the basic technology on which cryptocurrencies are based.
But no one was in a hurry to intervene. So, unnoticed by either the world of cryptocurrencies or the general public, the pyramid has grown to an impressive size. The cost of one currency unit reached $ 2,000, and the total amount of investments in Onecoin, according to various estimates, was 4-5 billion euros. When it came to opening the exchange of purchased cryptocurrencies for the usual money to investors, Ruzha Ignatova... disappeared without a trace.
A "crypto queen" in Germany? Or in Russia?
Ruja's place was taken by her younger brother Konstantin, who continued to recruit new investors from Sofia, including in poor countries in Latin America and Africa. The total number of participants in the cryptopyramid exceeded three million at that time. It is striking that even when Konstantin Ignatov was detained in Los Angeles in March 2019 on charges of fraud, the deception continued for some time. Konstantin pleaded guilty and agreed to a deal with the FBI, and it was after his revelations that many details of the scam became known.
Meanwhile, BBC journalists tried to find the missing Rifle. According to her brother, in October 2017, she flew to Athens. There, several witnesses confirmed to reporters that they allegedly saw her a few months after the escape. Reporters followed Ruja's trail to Bucharest and finally to Frankfurt am Main. A BBC source confirmed that she goes there. But I couldn't find it. Allegedly, she had plastic surgery, and also received a new passport, as suggested by her brother. He also did not rule out that Ruzha may be in Russia, as she allegedly met a very influential Russian shortly before her disappearance.
But there are still no facts that can confirm these statements and assumptions. It may seem incredible, but even today, despite the collapse of the Onecoin company, the pseudo-currency itself still exists-now under the name OneLife. Around the world, several tens of thousands of people still hope that one day they will get rich - just as Ruzha Ignatova promised them.
==========
Europol included the co-founder of the OneCoin cryptocurrency pyramid scheme in the list of the most wanted fugitives of the European Union, offering a reward of 5,000 euros for information about a woman.
Ruzha Ignatova was one of the founders of one of the largest pyramids in the history of cryptocurrencies. The OneCoin scheme worked on the principle of network marketing and consisted of selling training materials on trading digital assets. Users received a certain percentage for registering new members. The project management claimed that it involved about 3 million people worldwide. In total, the scammers managed to steal up to $15 billion.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York has charged Ruja Ignatova and her brother Konstantin Ignatov with electronic fraud, securities fraud and money laundering. Ignatov was detained in March 2019. Charges were also brought against Ignatova's lawyer, Mark Scott, who helped her launder money. Ruzha Ignatova herself has been successfully hiding from law enforcement agencies since October 2017, which is why she is called the "missing crypto queen". Europol added Ignatova to the list of most wanted criminals. For any information leading to Ignatova's arrest,
Europol offers a cash reward of 5,000 euros. The agency expands the scope of search activities and seeks to increase the likelihood that the co-founder of OneCoin will be brought to justice.
• Source: https://eumostwanted.eu/#/ignatova-ruja
===========
Although there is no obvious evidence of the death of the founder of the OneCoin cryptopyramid, Ruja Ignatova, it is highly likely that she is dead. This was stated in an interview with the BBC by former IRS investigator Richard Reinhardt.
In February 2023, the BIRD project, citing Bulgarian police documents, reported that a businesswoman was killed in 2018 on a yacht in the Ionian Sea.
Bulgarian investigative journalist Dimitar Stoyanov and his colleagues from BIRD managed to access the reports of informants found in the home of the murdered policeman. According to one of the documents, the murder was committed on the orders of Christoforos Nikos Amanatidis, known as Taki.
In Bulgaria, they believe that he is the head of the mafia and the largest drug smuggler in the country's history. Amanatidis and his accomplices were under investigation on charges of armed robbery, drug trafficking, and murder, but were never brought to justice.
From security guards to assassins?
BBC journalists have learned from Europol documents that came to their disposal that Bulgarian police established a connection between Taki and Ignatova before her disappearance in 2017. Law enforcement officers suspect that he used cryptopyramide for money laundering.
"We were told that a major drug dealer is responsible for her physical safety. Taki's name was mentioned more than once. It was a regular topic, " Reinhardt confirmed to the publication.
This echoes the information received by journalists earlier: in 2019, US state prosecutors stated that the head of Ignatova's security service is a major drug dealer from Bulgaria, although they did not give a name. According to them, he was also involved in her disappearance.
A Bulgarian source close to Ignatova said that she may have paid Taki up to €100,000 a month.
Frank Schneider, an ex-adviser to Ignatova who gave the Europol documents to the BBC, confirmed that his boss worked with "crooks" and"gangsters". But he refused to give any names.
"I won't tell you who, because I have a family. [ ... ] This is really serious organized crime, " he said.
At the time of the interview, Schneider was under house arrest in France, awaiting extradition to the United States. A few months later, he disappeared.
Stoyanov suggests that at some point Ignatova became a burden to Taki and he chose to get rid of her. The journalist noted that Bulgarian law enforcement officers confirmed the authenticity of the informant's report, but they cannot use this statement as evidence.
Experts are almost certain of the murder, but there is no evidence
Stoyanov managed to communicate with one of Taki's accomplices-Krasimir Kamenov, nicknamed Kuro, who is wanted for murder. He said that he asked the drug lord if it was worth discussing criminal cases with Ignatova.
"Don't worry, she's almost dead," he allegedly replied.
Kuro also claimed to have talked about Taki with the CIA, including the murder of the OneCoin founder. BBC sources confirmed that such a meeting took place at the end of 2022.
In May 2023, Kamenov was murdered at his home in Cape Town, along with his wife and two other people who worked for him. South African police are still searching for the killers.
After reviewing the available property records and talking to eyewitnesses, Stoyanov discovered that most of Ignatova's Bulgarian property is now being used by people associated with Taki.
"There is no honor among thieves, [...] knowing how violent cartels are, if [Taki] thought she was a threat to him, [ ... ] probably would have eliminated her instead of being caught," Reinhardt said.
The BBC team, following the Missing Crypto Queen podcast released in 2019, received a wealth of information and reports on Ignatova's whereabouts following her alleged murder, including details of a botched police operation in Greece to capture her in 2022.
Journalists admit that the rumors about her death are just a brilliant maneuver designed to throw everyone off the trail.
"At some point, it may seem that Elvis Presley is still alive. [ ... ] In fact, this is unlikely, " commented Ivan Khristanov, a former Bulgarian deputy minister who conducted an investigation against Taki in 2022.
In May 2022, Europol included Ignatova in the list of most wanted criminals. Next, the OneCoin founder was added to a similar list by the FBI.
At the time of writing, Ignatova's card is not available on the corresponding page of the EU Police Service.
American law enforcement officers have not yet excluded her from the top ten most wanted persons. However, Reinhardt is confident that the agency will not do this until it receives "final proof" of her death.
Recall that in March, the brother of the founder of OneCoin, Konstantin Ignatov, was released in the United States after three years in prison.
For several years, a native of Bulgaria with a German passport collected money from depositors from Germany and around the world, selling them the Onecoin cryptocurrency. Only this currency, it seems, she just invented, surprisingly long leading millions of gullible depositors by the nose: in Germany alone, tens of thousands of people were affected by Ignatova's activities.
Who ended up in the dock in Munster and who didn't
In the dock in Munster, a married couple from the city of Greven (this is the north-west of Germany) and a lawyer from Munich (south of the country). The couple transferred depositors 'money for" cryptocurrency " to Ruzha's accounts. Only through these intermediaries, the "crypto queen" received 320 million euros for Onecoin. The court will have to prove that the Greventsy knew about the fraudulent nature of the transactions - they deny this.
The second person involved in the trial is a Munich lawyer who, instead of Ms. Ignatova, signed papers and made large purchases so that the head of the company would not shine unnecessarily. He is accused of money laundering. But neither the couple nor the lawyer played a key role in the Onecoin scam: the main character was exactly Ruzha Ignatova, for whose arrest an international FBI warrant has long been issued, but who nevertheless manages to hide since 2017.
As a child, Ignatova moved with her parents and younger brother Konstantin from Bulgaria to the German Black Forest, studied at Oxford and defended her doctoral dissertation at the University of Konstanz in Germany. Before the scam with cryptocurrencies, she managed to work in a well-known consulting company McKinsey, and also made an illegal deal with the purchase and sale of a steel plant in the Bavarian Algo, leaving the buyer with a ruined and looted plant.
This is the only offense for which Ignatova was convicted in Germany in 2016, and even then she was given a year and two months of imprisonment only on probation. Ruja's new scam did not interest German justice at that time, although by that time she had already turned from a factory owner into the very "crypto queen".
Rouge, who promised that "everyone will forget about bitcoin"
The Onecoin pyramid scheme was created in July 2014. The promise of the Ruzhi startup is a cryptocurrency that is "understandable to any" person, more convenient and easier to handle than others. Investors were offered to buy so-called "training packages" that allegedly included cryptocurrency and instructions on how it works. The cost of such packages ranges from several hundred to 118 thousand euros. If someone who had already bought the "package" persuaded someone else to buy a new currency, they received a good percentage of the transaction.
During one of the advertising speeches in 2015, Rouge stated that, unlike other cryptocurrencies, Onecoin is backed by gold, hidden so securely that even she does not know where it is. The money raised was gradually enough for more and more pompous advertising events - in 2016, the company booked Wembley Stadium for its investors for the evening, where Rouge loudly promised that "in two years everyone will forget about bitcoin." The post is still hanging in Youtube.
Alarm signals were ignored by the vast majority of investors even when strong arguments were publicly expressed in favor of the fact that Onecoin is a dummy, which is not based on the blockchain - the basic technology on which cryptocurrencies are based.
But no one was in a hurry to intervene. So, unnoticed by either the world of cryptocurrencies or the general public, the pyramid has grown to an impressive size. The cost of one currency unit reached $ 2,000, and the total amount of investments in Onecoin, according to various estimates, was 4-5 billion euros. When it came to opening the exchange of purchased cryptocurrencies for the usual money to investors, Ruzha Ignatova... disappeared without a trace.
A "crypto queen" in Germany? Or in Russia?
Ruja's place was taken by her younger brother Konstantin, who continued to recruit new investors from Sofia, including in poor countries in Latin America and Africa. The total number of participants in the cryptopyramid exceeded three million at that time. It is striking that even when Konstantin Ignatov was detained in Los Angeles in March 2019 on charges of fraud, the deception continued for some time. Konstantin pleaded guilty and agreed to a deal with the FBI, and it was after his revelations that many details of the scam became known.
Meanwhile, BBC journalists tried to find the missing Rifle. According to her brother, in October 2017, she flew to Athens. There, several witnesses confirmed to reporters that they allegedly saw her a few months after the escape. Reporters followed Ruja's trail to Bucharest and finally to Frankfurt am Main. A BBC source confirmed that she goes there. But I couldn't find it. Allegedly, she had plastic surgery, and also received a new passport, as suggested by her brother. He also did not rule out that Ruzha may be in Russia, as she allegedly met a very influential Russian shortly before her disappearance.
But there are still no facts that can confirm these statements and assumptions. It may seem incredible, but even today, despite the collapse of the Onecoin company, the pseudo-currency itself still exists-now under the name OneLife. Around the world, several tens of thousands of people still hope that one day they will get rich - just as Ruzha Ignatova promised them.
==========
Europol included the co-founder of the OneCoin cryptocurrency pyramid scheme in the list of the most wanted fugitives of the European Union, offering a reward of 5,000 euros for information about a woman.
Ruzha Ignatova was one of the founders of one of the largest pyramids in the history of cryptocurrencies. The OneCoin scheme worked on the principle of network marketing and consisted of selling training materials on trading digital assets. Users received a certain percentage for registering new members. The project management claimed that it involved about 3 million people worldwide. In total, the scammers managed to steal up to $15 billion.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York has charged Ruja Ignatova and her brother Konstantin Ignatov with electronic fraud, securities fraud and money laundering. Ignatov was detained in March 2019. Charges were also brought against Ignatova's lawyer, Mark Scott, who helped her launder money. Ruzha Ignatova herself has been successfully hiding from law enforcement agencies since October 2017, which is why she is called the "missing crypto queen". Europol added Ignatova to the list of most wanted criminals. For any information leading to Ignatova's arrest,
Europol offers a cash reward of 5,000 euros. The agency expands the scope of search activities and seeks to increase the likelihood that the co-founder of OneCoin will be brought to justice.
• Source: https://eumostwanted.eu/#/ignatova-ruja
===========
Although there is no obvious evidence of the death of the founder of the OneCoin cryptopyramid, Ruja Ignatova, it is highly likely that she is dead. This was stated in an interview with the BBC by former IRS investigator Richard Reinhardt.
In February 2023, the BIRD project, citing Bulgarian police documents, reported that a businesswoman was killed in 2018 on a yacht in the Ionian Sea.
Bulgarian investigative journalist Dimitar Stoyanov and his colleagues from BIRD managed to access the reports of informants found in the home of the murdered policeman. According to one of the documents, the murder was committed on the orders of Christoforos Nikos Amanatidis, known as Taki.
In Bulgaria, they believe that he is the head of the mafia and the largest drug smuggler in the country's history. Amanatidis and his accomplices were under investigation on charges of armed robbery, drug trafficking, and murder, but were never brought to justice.
From security guards to assassins?
BBC journalists have learned from Europol documents that came to their disposal that Bulgarian police established a connection between Taki and Ignatova before her disappearance in 2017. Law enforcement officers suspect that he used cryptopyramide for money laundering.
"We were told that a major drug dealer is responsible for her physical safety. Taki's name was mentioned more than once. It was a regular topic, " Reinhardt confirmed to the publication.
This echoes the information received by journalists earlier: in 2019, US state prosecutors stated that the head of Ignatova's security service is a major drug dealer from Bulgaria, although they did not give a name. According to them, he was also involved in her disappearance.
A Bulgarian source close to Ignatova said that she may have paid Taki up to €100,000 a month.
Frank Schneider, an ex-adviser to Ignatova who gave the Europol documents to the BBC, confirmed that his boss worked with "crooks" and"gangsters". But he refused to give any names.
"I won't tell you who, because I have a family. [ ... ] This is really serious organized crime, " he said.
At the time of the interview, Schneider was under house arrest in France, awaiting extradition to the United States. A few months later, he disappeared.
Stoyanov suggests that at some point Ignatova became a burden to Taki and he chose to get rid of her. The journalist noted that Bulgarian law enforcement officers confirmed the authenticity of the informant's report, but they cannot use this statement as evidence.
Experts are almost certain of the murder, but there is no evidence
Stoyanov managed to communicate with one of Taki's accomplices-Krasimir Kamenov, nicknamed Kuro, who is wanted for murder. He said that he asked the drug lord if it was worth discussing criminal cases with Ignatova.
"Don't worry, she's almost dead," he allegedly replied.
Kuro also claimed to have talked about Taki with the CIA, including the murder of the OneCoin founder. BBC sources confirmed that such a meeting took place at the end of 2022.
In May 2023, Kamenov was murdered at his home in Cape Town, along with his wife and two other people who worked for him. South African police are still searching for the killers.
After reviewing the available property records and talking to eyewitnesses, Stoyanov discovered that most of Ignatova's Bulgarian property is now being used by people associated with Taki.
"There is no honor among thieves, [...] knowing how violent cartels are, if [Taki] thought she was a threat to him, [ ... ] probably would have eliminated her instead of being caught," Reinhardt said.
The BBC team, following the Missing Crypto Queen podcast released in 2019, received a wealth of information and reports on Ignatova's whereabouts following her alleged murder, including details of a botched police operation in Greece to capture her in 2022.
Journalists admit that the rumors about her death are just a brilliant maneuver designed to throw everyone off the trail.
"At some point, it may seem that Elvis Presley is still alive. [ ... ] In fact, this is unlikely, " commented Ivan Khristanov, a former Bulgarian deputy minister who conducted an investigation against Taki in 2022.
In May 2022, Europol included Ignatova in the list of most wanted criminals. Next, the OneCoin founder was added to a similar list by the FBI.
At the time of writing, Ignatova's card is not available on the corresponding page of the EU Police Service.
American law enforcement officers have not yet excluded her from the top ten most wanted persons. However, Reinhardt is confident that the agency will not do this until it receives "final proof" of her death.
Recall that in March, the brother of the founder of OneCoin, Konstantin Ignatov, was released in the United States after three years in prison.
