Ruja Ignatova, also referred to as “CryptoQueen”, is one of ten most wanted criminals by the United State’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for her alleged participation in a large-scale 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 (R90 000 000) 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.
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 Ignatova, that she had been spotted in an affluent suburb in Cape Town.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY THAT RUJA IGNATOVA COULD BE HIDING IN SOUTH AFRICA?
Let us know by clicking on the comment tab below this article or by emailing info@thesouthafrican.com or sending a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. You can also follow @TheSAnews on X and The South African on Facebook for the latest news.
