Previously, the property belonged to a company called Abbots House Penthouse Limited, based in Guernsey, a well-known tax haven with very little government oversight. One Property was owned by another company called Risk Ltd. Risk Ltd was owned by Ruja, but was then transferred to some unnamed Panamanians, but it was still managed by another company called Peragon. It told the BBC: "OneCoin verifiably fulfils all criteria of the definition of a crypto-currency." After that, she vanished and remains missing. His wife, Andreea Cimbala, nods along, adding that if he wakes up and puts on pink underwear, he sticks to pink as he chooses his shirt, trousers and jacket. Igor Alberts, the MLM kingpin, said he'd heard she has Russian and Ukrainian passports and travels back and forth between Russia and Dubai. '", Money might push people to invest in the first place, but the sense of belonging, of doing something, of achieving something, is why they stay, Barker says. Born on May 30, 1980, in Bulgaria, Ignatova moved to Germany with her family when she was 10 years old. VideoRecord numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. Maybe 1,000 wasn't enough? ", I ask him why not. Blame is not easy to apportion. You can listen to episodes here. Ruja Plamenova Ignatova (Bulgarian: , romanized:Rua Plamenova Ignatova; born 30 May 1980) is a Bulgarian-born German citizen and convicted fraudster. He already had 400,000 shillings in savings, and to raise the rest he returned from the capital, Kampala, to his family home, took three goats raised by his younger brothers, and sold them. Ruja Ignatova, or Dr. Ruja, was a prominent figure in the growing cryptocurrency market. Dr Ignatova pulled off one of the world's biggest ever scams, based on her new cryptocurrency called 'OneCoin', before disappearing in 2017. She reportedly earned a PhD in private international law from the University of Constance and has a daughter who. The police files contain presentations made at an "Operation Satellite" Europol meeting in The Hague on 15 March 2017. It seemed like easy money. (She received a fine and a suspended sentence in October 2016.) Dr Ruja Ignatova called her creation the 'Bitcoin killer' - and her hype duped a million investors. So it seems Ruja is still alive, and is able to visit a European capital without fearing arrest. 16 months' suspended imprisonment for a previous case. "If Dr. Ruja still has the 230,000 bitcoins, she would be one of the currency's largest holders. I had no clue that it could be false. In March 2016 it was announced that the exchange would be closing down for two weeks for maintenance. "We made in our first month almost 90,000 out of nothing. But it seems it's not just the promise of riches that keeps people believing. I ask if he felt guilty, for having sold so many people a coin that didn't exist, and for having made so much money in the process. And then went completely off radar. The police documents were passed to The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast by Frank Schneider, a former spy and trusted adviser to Ms Ignatova. People involved at the early stages have told him it was never supposed to be a billion-dollar scam. So it's our blockchain technology, a SQL server with a database.". Daniel translates, and his mother's reply comes back. From the very beginning, she was a gifted child and always at the top of her class. The manager of the database could go in and change it at will. I don't want those people I introduced into OneCoin to see me moving around. London, June 11, 2016. The Rothschild family (/ r (s) t a l d / ROTH(S)-chylde, German: [ot.lt]) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of Frankfurt, Holy Roman Empire, who established his banking business in the 1760s. he shouts. Unlike Ignatova, however, he didnt stay free for very long. The Onecoin Ponzi was a multi-level-marketing (MLM) venture that featured packages that were ostensibly tethered to a blockchain network. McAdam started a Facebook support group for other defrauded victims of OneCoin. "Where's the support? "I'm somehow hiding myself. The alleged motive for the murder was to conceal the drug lord's involvement in the OneCoin scam. There, she recruited members to promote OneCoin and sell to their friends and relatives. Bjorn Bjercke is a blockchain expert and he was the first person who started speaking publicly against OneCoin. Ignatovas associates havent been as lucky. They are desperate to get their hands on the conwoman, offering a $100,000 reward for intel that ultimately leads to her arrest. The head office in Sofia, where she was such an imposing presence, didn't know anything either. People in villages trust people from the city, Prudence tells us. In early June 2016 a 36-year-old businesswoman called Dr Ruja Ignatova walked on stage at Wembley Arena in front of thousands of adoring fans. Both companies were founded by Ignatova and Greenwood. We've received your submission. The Bulgarian woman, believed to be in her 40s, is wanted for her alleged. "You're told not to believe anything from the 'outside world'," she recalls. The fact that OneCoin was operating internationally also created difficulties for the authorities. Members could later exchange these educational packages, ranging from 100 euros to 118,000 euros, for OneCoins. She doesn't speak English either, so I'm shocked to discover, as we sit and talk, that Daniel has never actually told his mother that the money is lost. On 6 March 2019 Konstantin Ignatov was at Los Angeles International airport, waiting to fly back to Bulgaria after some OneCoin meetings in the US. "OneCoins principals continue to operate from Bulgaria," according to Dr Levy. If anyone asks Prudence when the investment is going to deliver the promised riches, she tells them to wait. OneCoin was not a cryptocurrency and it did not have blockchain technology. Even Google - 'Don't listen to Google!'" Fairly soon Igor Alberts was making more than 1m a month from OneCoin, which quickly became the biggest product in network marketing. Do you know how they do so? I sell a box to my friends, Georgia and Phil, and make a small cut. "I've never told her directly that it's not going to work - that there is no more money, there's no more hope," he tells me. "Once OneCoin was running above 10 million, 20 million, 30 million, something happened where she was unable to stop it," Bjercke says. Her collaborators started getting arrested on securities and fraud charges and money laundering. She can't bring herself to tell them the truth. Dr Ruja was still travelling the world to sell her vision - hopping from Macau to Dubai to Singapore, filling out arenas, pulling in new investors. Cryptocurrency as an idea was just entering the mainstream. Doors opened. Dr Ruja's genius was to recognise that established MLM sellers with huge downlines were the perfect vehicle to market her fake coin - a plan the FBI says she privately referred to as "the bitch of Wall Street, meets MLM". One of the main OneCoin offices in Kampala is attached to a church. "I can't discuss that. In the Ntangamo region of Uganda, not far from Rwandan border, most people make their living growing bananas, or sometimes cassava, sweet potato, beans or groundnut. The US Department of Justice, New York County District Attorney's Office, and Dubai Police did not comment. She spotted that society's defence against OneCoin - the law-makers, the police, and also us in the media would struggle to understand what was happening. The agent replied that this was correct. Did we get close to her? "Some of their kids are at home sitting without going to school - some don't have anywhere to sleep. [5][6], Since 2017, Ignatova has been on the run from various international law enforcement agencies. "Particularly if you have invested something, not only money, but belief, reputation, intelligence. Dr. Ruja Ignatova is the only scammer who is on both the FBI and Interpol's 2022 Ten Most Wanted Lists. They were simply recording their transactions internally. A towel covers the front door, and a few metres away is her land, where she grows her own food and sells anything left over at the local market. In January 2022, police searched apartments and offices in Weilburg, Baden-Baden, Frankfurt am Main, Bad Homburg, Neu-Isenburg and Vaihingen. And that friend was visiting the richest neighbourhood in Frankfurt in summer this year. DeSantis won't say he's running. Then a few days later we received a call from a trusted source we cannot identify. It's also notorious for exaggerated promises of high earnings and tough sales targets. "Look, nothing has happened. Greatly feared for his use of violence, Silas Jayne operated in the very dark underworld of the champion horse business. There have been several alleged sightings of her, and it is believed that she could be travelling in the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and Dubai. Armed with a microphone and several photographs of Dr Ruja, we headed off to Frankfurt and searched old addresses and gated neighbourhoods said to be the most expensive in Germany. Ruja's brother Constantin Ignatov, whom she placed in charge of the company after leaving in 2017, was arrested in March 2019. However, in October 2017, the scammer completely vanished as authorities circled and she hasnt been seen since. He is now facing extradition to the US for his alleged role in the OneCoin fraud. While in Waltenhofen, we learned that she had a German husband, a lawyer for the well-known firm, Linklaters. Ruja Ignatova, with the help of a partner, created a crypto currency that was a scam. "I'm devastated for all the UK victims," Jen McAdam told me, when she heard the news. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Read about our approach to external linking. In 2012, she was convicted of fraud in Germany in connection with the acquisition of a steel company obtained by Ruja and her father. Over the next hour or so she listened carefully to people talking enthusiastically about this exciting new cryptocurrency - how it could transform her fortunes. Sitting at her computer, the Glaswegian clicked on a link and joined a OneCoin webinar. 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If you believe you have been a victim of fraud in relation to OneCoin or you suspect someone of actively marketing OneCoin, please come forward and report it to Action Fraud online.". It's mathematic. But when the day came, Dr Ruja - who was famously punctual - didn't show up. Europol told the BBC it was looking into the matter, adding: "This complex scenario with many stakeholders makes it difficult to assess where and how such an incident might have occurred.". He didn't get it, and in December 2017 he quit. They'd read, with envy, the stories of people striking gold with Bitcoin and thought OneCoin was a second chance. For a long time, people have tried to create a form of digital money independent of state-backed currencies. Dr Ruja's genius was to take all of this and sell the idea to the masses. Missing Cryptoqueen joins FBI ten most wanted, Revealed: The Cryptoqueen's 13.5m London penthouse. You think, 'Wait a bit longer. [9] Ignatova emigrated to Germany with her family when she was ten years old, and spent part of her childhood in Schramberg in the state of Baden-Wrttemberg. Do you know who to complain to when you are a victim of a Ponzi scheme or pyramid scheme? She told the cheering crowd that OneCoin was on course to become the world's biggest cryptocurrency "for everyone to make payments everywhere". After Dr Ruja's non-appearance in Lisbon, a point came when Igor Alberts, like Jen McAdam, asked to see evidence of the blockchain. [12] She reportedly has also worked for McKinsey & Company. It is believed that more than a million investors from 175 countries were defrauded into investing in OneCoin. I don't want to be the person that breaks the news to Daniel's mother. Details first surfaced in 2021 in leaked documents from Dubai's courts, posted online by Dr. Jonathan Levy, a UK-based lawyer, who described her as "the most successful criminal in history.". A cryptocurrency start-up from Bulgaria was looking for a chief technical officer. Will she get her money back? But besides loving books, he was also a master book thief. Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. But the motive of other people was simply being able to acquire a better life; people who worked long hours, people who did difficult physical labor, old people. And Peragon was owned by another company called Artefix, which was owned by Ruja's mother, Veska. Listen to The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast on BBC Sounds - the search for Dr Ruja Ignatova continues, with a new episode about the police leak out on 19 October. Those events were packed and organized like rock concerts. Another lead comes our way when we pay a visit to a bizarre OneCoin beauty pageant in Bucharest. They live in an enormous house in an affluent neighbourhood on the outskirts of Amsterdam. Ruja Ignatova and her business partner Sebastian Greenwood conned their clients out of $4 Billion. He takes the first one on the list and looks it up on the Companies House website. Ignatova was married to a German lawyer, with whom she had a daughter in 2016. In October 2022, a documentary called "CryptoqueenThe OneCoin Scam" debuted at Mipcom Cannes. Its understood Ignatova purchased the property under a company name, but a new rule means that the beneficiary of said company must also be named in full. A change in the rules of Companies House the UK equivalent of ASIC forced Ignatova out of hiding, as she had to be named in full rather than just her shell company. In 2016 it was here that 22-year-old Daniel Lienhardt came as he was scraping together the 700,000 Ugandan shillings ($250) he needed to buy a OneCoin starter package. Although Jen McAdam had now seen the light, few other OneCoin investors had. This platform was launched after many delays. "She was on her way. So we start unearthing previous addresses, known friends, old phone numbers, anything that could help us. The BBC was not able to verify all of the documents leaked. VideoAt the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Sake brewers toast big rise in global sales, The Indian-American CEO who wants to be US president, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip, Ukraine war casts shadow over India's G20 ambitions, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. Big companies like Amway and Herbalife use these techniques. "You can still use them to buy things, you can still use them to buy political influence and nice houses and yachts. 'Haters' - Bitcoiners are 'haters'. Jennifer McAdam, a 52-year-old Scottish single parent and businesswoman who fell victim to OneCoin fraud commented that she was pleased the FBI had added Ignatova to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. But we were still surprised when, during our internet searches, Frankfurt started appearing over and over again. Until this week, however, the OneCoin head office remained open for business - and people were continuing to promote the currency. Facebook Previously, the property belonged to a company called Abbots House Penthouse Limited,. That more than 1m a month from OneCoin, which was owned by Ruja 's genius to! Surprised when, during our internet searches, Frankfurt started appearing over and over again $. You know who to complain to when you are a victim of a partner created. And make a small cut week, however, the Glaswegian clicked a. 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