Key Takeaways:
Ruja Ignatova, a.k.a. the Crypto Queen, disappeared without a trace in November 2017 and has not been heard from since. The Bulgarian is wanted by the FBI for defrauding OneCoin users of $4.5 billion. Previously thought to have been murdered, the German police says new evidence suggests she’s alive and living in Cape Town, South Africa.In life and in “death,” Ruja Ignatova has continued to confound many people. The fugitive OneCoin founder, also known as ‘Crypto Queen,’ disappeared without a trace around this time in 2017, never to be seen or heard from again.
Ignatova is the only woman on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) list of 10 most wanted fugitives. The Bulgarian, believed to be in her late 40s, is wanted for her role in OneCoin, the cryptocurrency scam she co-founded in September 2014.
The FBI alleges that Ignatova defrauded people who took part in OneCoin of $4.5 billion. The scheme had all the makings of a Ponzi. It used network marketing and commissions to gain popularity. Everyone who introduced a new buyer to the platform got a commission.
Crypto Queen ‘Outfoxes’ Investigators
Seven years to the month of Ignatova’s last known whereabouts, chances of her being found appear slim as she continues to evade capture. There have been several theories about the Crypto Queen’s current location.
One theory suggests that she is living in luxury in Dubai or somewhere in Southeast Asia, likely in Thailand. This was suggested by a special BBC podcast by Jamie Bartlett released in October 2022.
At the time, the BBC obtained documents that showed that Ignatova worked with Sheikh Faisal bin Sultan Al Qassimi, a royal in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to release funds that had been frozen over suspicion of money laundering.
Ignatova allegedly bought a $20 million villa in the UAE, which may be where she has been hiding out for more than half a decade now, the podcast suggested.
The BBC also found that she struck a mega-million deal with Emirati royal Sheik Saoud, a known fan of cryptocurrency. In 2015, he reportedly sold 230,000 Bitcoins worth $22.5 billion at current prices to Ignatova. Then, the BTC was valued at nearly $48 million.
There were suggestions that Ignatova was buying intelligence from the Bulgarian police. Observers said that may be the reason she has outfoxed investigators for the past seven years, per the BBC.
‘Murder’ Most Foul
Another theory says the Crypto Queen was murdered at the orders of a dangerous Bulgarian drug lord she hired to protect her, according to a BBC investigation published in June this year.
Criminal associates of Ignatova’s mafioso bodyguard, Hristoforos Nikos Amanatidis, believe he killed her for the unwanted attention her case brought him, the report said.
According to the BBC, the Crypto Queen was paying Amanatidis, a drug trafficker reportedly connected with murder and armed robberies, about $100,000 a month for protection. Amanatidis also goes by the alias ‘Taki.’
Dimitar Stoyanov, a Bulgarian investigative journalist who first broke the murder story with his colleagues in 2022, told the broadcaster:
“Certain people had to be removed because they knew too much about Taki. It was kind of a public execution that looked more like a statement. Be careful who you deal with.”
Stoyanov’s 2022 report for news outlet Bird.bg referred to a police report recovered from the home of a murdered Bulgarian cop in 2022.
The report detailed a police informer’s account of Taki’s brother-in-law drunkenly saying Ignatova had been murdered on Taki’s orders in late 2018. After the alleged killing, Ignatova’s body was dismembered and dumped off a yacht in the Ionian Sea, it added.
Bulgarian officials confirmed the authenticity of the police document to the BBC. Bird reporter Stoyanov indicated the high possibility of the story, but it is also possible that the report was planted to rest agencies off the Crypto Queen’s file.
A close ally of Taki’s called Krasimir Kamenov reportedly briefed the CIA in 2022 about Taki and his responsibility for the murder of Ignatova. He would be murdered in Cape Town, South Africa, a year later, along with his wife and two associates, an episode that has also linked to Taki.
Ignatova’s body has never been found, and Taki, suspected by the EU’s law enforcement agency Europol of using OneCoin’s financial network to launder drug money, has never been arrested over the murder claims.
In fact, another angle speculates that both Taki and Ignatova are living in Dubai. Sources told the BBC that the two had a close personal relationship and Taki was godfather to Ignatova’s daughter.
Ruja Ignatova May Now Be a Man
In November 2022, TradingPedia speculated that the Crypto Queen had undergone a sex change to stay off the radar, in yet another theory.
The platform released a catalog of eight faces that Ignatova may have assumed as part of her strategy to evade law enforcement. One sketch suggests she may now be a man, complete with short hair and a beard.
It is hard to pin down any single theory as the most accurate. However, some people have not ruled out the possibility of Ignatova being alive.
Brian McColl, an analyst at TradingPedia who led the Ignatova research, previously said the fact that she is wanted by the FBI and Europol suggests the agencies believe the fraudster still is alive.
German Police: ‘There Is No Murder. She’s Alive’
This thought is supported by German authorities. According to a report published by the German newspaper Der Spiegel earlier this month, Ignatova may still be alive and living in a wealthy area of Cape Town, South Africa, under heavy guard from private security firms.
The report says that German police found inconsistencies in the evidence against Taki, Ignatova’s former head of security. German authorities have been investigating the OneCoin scam and Ignatova for several years. Ignatova also holds German citizenship.
Police dispute the theory about Ignatova’s death, pointing to evidence that shows her alleged killer was in Dutch custody when the purported “murder” was committed. Details are due to be released in an upcoming documentary.
As reported by Der Spiegel, Sabine Dässel, spokesperson for the German criminal investigation unit LKA Düsseldorf, said:
“We assume or work with the hypothesis that Ruja Ignatova is still alive. This is also supported by the reactions within her family, with whom Ignatova always maintained close contact. The daughter and sister are not mourned by their family members, so there is apparently no knowledge of Ruja Ignatova’s death within the family. There is no murder. She is alive, period.”
Dässel added that police had received information showing Ignatova was hiding in Cape Town. German filmmaker Johan von Mirbach, who is working on a documentary about Ignatova, said his team received a tip about her whereabouts from South African security sources.
Police are also banking on the testimony of former OneCoin employee Duncan Arthur, who denies claims about Ignatova’s death. Arthur claims that Ignatova stayed in contact with her brother Konstantin long after the date she was allegedly murdered, Der Spiegel reports.
Better Than Bitcoin
Ruja Ignatova attracted millions of unsuspecting investors by marketing OneCoin as a Bitcoin alternative that would reward early movers. The Oxford graduate was selling a Ponzi scheme that did not use a digital public ledger like legitimate cryptocurrencies
Three years after the 2014 launch of OneCoin, the Crypto Queen escaped from Sofia to Athens as U.S. and German agencies moved to bust her pyramid. She has been off the radar ever since, despite ongoing arrests and extraditions of her accomplices.
The FBI is offering a $5 million reward to anyone with information leading to her arrest. Ignatova is a criminal mastermind. An enigma.
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