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Joshua Fagbemi
Guest
The German police believe Ruja Ignatova, co-founder of OneCoin, is still alive. The police agency received leads that the fraudulent cryptocurrency co-founder could be in South Africa.
Earlier this year the FBI and US State Department increased a reward for information leading to Ignatova’s arrest and conviction to $5 million. The reward was initially set at $100,000 in June 2022 when she was added to the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ list of the ten most-wanted fugitives.
Ruja Ignatov
The Times described OneCoin as “one of the biggest scams in history.” It was fundamentally a $4 billion Ponzi scheme disguised as a cryptocurrency platform.
The Düsseldorf Landeskriminalamt (LKA), German State Criminal Police Office, found a crucial contradiction with Ivanov’s documents. The LKA is working under the assumption that “The Cryptoqueen” is still alive.
Daily Maverick reported that her brother, Konstantin Ignatov, who became the de facto leader of the organization was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport in March 2019. Then, he was with a man named Duncan Arthur.
Konstantin Ignatov
According to Arthur’s LinkedIn account, he has dual citizenship in Ireland and South Africa. He also lived and worked in Johannesburg until around October 2023. Arthur’s CV includes serving as the legal custodian for Nedbank electronic banking, compliance officer at the Financial Intelligence Centre, and risk and compliance manager at BankservAfrica.
After that, he served as head of compliance and money laundering control at Standard Bank and was the principal specialist for money laundering control at Vodacom from April to December 2009.
Daily Maverick, a South African newspaper, reported that Arthur wrote a document for Bulgaria’s Department of Justice in which he said Ignatova personally recruited him.
In March 2019, Duncan Arthur told the Bulgarian government that reports of Ignatova’s 2018 murder were false. He expressed that her brother had remained in contact with her as late as the month he was arrested. Also, based on the photos Konstantin Ignatov posted on Instagram, he had visited Cape Town in 2018.
Meanwhile, in a Der Spiegel report, South African security sources had tipped off filmmaker Johan von Mirbach, who made a documentary about Ignatova, that she had been spotted in an affluent area of Cape Town.
The LKA said it does not know where Ignatova is but that some clues lead to South Africa.
Described by The Times as “one of the biggest scams in history”, OneCoin was fundamentally a Ponzi scheme disguised as a cryptocurrency.
A Ponzi scheme is a form of investing scheme that promises a high rate of return on an investment with little or no risk to the investors. It is essentially a pyramid scheme in which early investors are repaid by bringing in new ones.
The mastermind of the OneCoin project is Ruja Ignatova, dubbed as The Missing Cryptoqueen in a BBC podcast series about the OneCoin scam. Born in May 1980 in Bulgaria, she graduated with a PhD in International Law from the University of Konstanz in 2006. She launched OneCoin alongside the two other key personas: her brother, Konstantin Ignatov, and Sebastian Greenwood.
Ruja Ignatov got to know Greenwood from ‘BigCoin’, a sort of alpha version of the OneCoin project. It was said that many of the schemes and scam dynamics used in BigCoin were later recycled for OneCoin.
Sebastian Greenwood was reported to be a proper scammer. According to Cointelegraph, he had launched a pyramid scheme hiding behind MLM practices called Unaico before OneCoin. Ruja’s brother, Konstantin Ignatov played an important role but did not mastermind the scam.
Launched in 2014, OneCoin’s promo materials positioned it as the next big cryptocurrency and a “better Bitcoin”. At its peak, it is believed to have had over 3 million members in 175 countries, bringing in between $4 billion and $19 billion for the founder and Cryptoqueen and her accomplices over a two-to-three-year period.
Read More: All you need to know about Onecoin, the biggest crypto scam in history.
Ruja Ignatova who disappeared on October 25, 2017, is a Bulgarian-born German entrepreneur. She is best known as the founder of a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme known as OneCoin, which The Times described as “one of the biggest scams in history.
She was the subject of the 2019 BBC podcast series The Missing Cryptoqueen and the 2022 book of the same name. Ignatova last boarded a flight to Athens on October 25, 2017, and has not been seen since.
Since her disappearance, Ignatova has long been presumed to be on the run from various international law enforcement agencies. The FBI has offered up to five million dollars for any information leading to her arrest. In early 2019, she was charged in absentia by U.S. authorities for wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering.
In June 2022, the FBI added Ignatova to its Ten Most Wanted list. German authorities issued an Interpol warrant for her arrest.
Reports in 2023 and 2024 suggested that Ignatova may have been murdered in 2018 on the orders of Bulgarian organized crime figure “Taki” Hristoforos Nikos Amanatidis, who is suspected of initially sheltering her.
Read Also: Co-founder of fraudulent crypto scheme OneCoin sentenced to 20 years in jail.
The post Ruja Ignatova, highly wanted cryptoqueen suspected to still be alive first appeared on Technext.
Earlier this year the FBI and US State Department increased a reward for information leading to Ignatova’s arrest and conviction to $5 million. The reward was initially set at $100,000 in June 2022 when she was added to the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ list of the ten most-wanted fugitives.
Ruja Ignatov
The Times described OneCoin as “one of the biggest scams in history.” It was fundamentally a $4 billion Ponzi scheme disguised as a cryptocurrency platform.
Evidence Linking Ruja Ignatova to South Africa
The Düsseldorf Landeskriminalamt (LKA), German State Criminal Police Office, found a crucial contradiction with Ivanov’s documents. The LKA is working under the assumption that “The Cryptoqueen” is still alive.
Daily Maverick reported that her brother, Konstantin Ignatov, who became the de facto leader of the organization was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport in March 2019. Then, he was with a man named Duncan Arthur.
Konstantin Ignatov
According to Arthur’s LinkedIn account, he has dual citizenship in Ireland and South Africa. He also lived and worked in Johannesburg until around October 2023. Arthur’s CV includes serving as the legal custodian for Nedbank electronic banking, compliance officer at the Financial Intelligence Centre, and risk and compliance manager at BankservAfrica.
After that, he served as head of compliance and money laundering control at Standard Bank and was the principal specialist for money laundering control at Vodacom from April to December 2009.
Daily Maverick, a South African newspaper, reported that Arthur wrote a document for Bulgaria’s Department of Justice in which he said Ignatova personally recruited him.
In March 2019, Duncan Arthur told the Bulgarian government that reports of Ignatova’s 2018 murder were false. He expressed that her brother had remained in contact with her as late as the month he was arrested. Also, based on the photos Konstantin Ignatov posted on Instagram, he had visited Cape Town in 2018.
Meanwhile, in a Der Spiegel report, South African security sources had tipped off filmmaker Johan von Mirbach, who made a documentary about Ignatova, that she had been spotted in an affluent area of Cape Town.
The LKA said it does not know where Ignatova is but that some clues lead to South Africa.
OneCoin: One of the biggest scams in history
Described by The Times as “one of the biggest scams in history”, OneCoin was fundamentally a Ponzi scheme disguised as a cryptocurrency.
A Ponzi scheme is a form of investing scheme that promises a high rate of return on an investment with little or no risk to the investors. It is essentially a pyramid scheme in which early investors are repaid by bringing in new ones.
The mastermind of the OneCoin project is Ruja Ignatova, dubbed as The Missing Cryptoqueen in a BBC podcast series about the OneCoin scam. Born in May 1980 in Bulgaria, she graduated with a PhD in International Law from the University of Konstanz in 2006. She launched OneCoin alongside the two other key personas: her brother, Konstantin Ignatov, and Sebastian Greenwood.
Ruja Ignatov got to know Greenwood from ‘BigCoin’, a sort of alpha version of the OneCoin project. It was said that many of the schemes and scam dynamics used in BigCoin were later recycled for OneCoin.
Sebastian Greenwood was reported to be a proper scammer. According to Cointelegraph, he had launched a pyramid scheme hiding behind MLM practices called Unaico before OneCoin. Ruja’s brother, Konstantin Ignatov played an important role but did not mastermind the scam.
Launched in 2014, OneCoin’s promo materials positioned it as the next big cryptocurrency and a “better Bitcoin”. At its peak, it is believed to have had over 3 million members in 175 countries, bringing in between $4 billion and $19 billion for the founder and Cryptoqueen and her accomplices over a two-to-three-year period.
Read More: All you need to know about Onecoin, the biggest crypto scam in history.
Ruja Ignatova: Alive or Dead?
Ruja Ignatova who disappeared on October 25, 2017, is a Bulgarian-born German entrepreneur. She is best known as the founder of a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme known as OneCoin, which The Times described as “one of the biggest scams in history.
She was the subject of the 2019 BBC podcast series The Missing Cryptoqueen and the 2022 book of the same name. Ignatova last boarded a flight to Athens on October 25, 2017, and has not been seen since.
Since her disappearance, Ignatova has long been presumed to be on the run from various international law enforcement agencies. The FBI has offered up to five million dollars for any information leading to her arrest. In early 2019, she was charged in absentia by U.S. authorities for wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering.
In June 2022, the FBI added Ignatova to its Ten Most Wanted list. German authorities issued an Interpol warrant for her arrest.
Reports in 2023 and 2024 suggested that Ignatova may have been murdered in 2018 on the orders of Bulgarian organized crime figure “Taki” Hristoforos Nikos Amanatidis, who is suspected of initially sheltering her.
Read Also: Co-founder of fraudulent crypto scheme OneCoin sentenced to 20 years in jail.
The post Ruja Ignatova, highly wanted cryptoqueen suspected to still be alive first appeared on Technext.