The $4 Billion OneCoin Scam Cost Its Founder Her Life
According to evidence uncovered by the BBC, Ruja Ignatova, the founder of the OneCoin Ponzi scheme, famously dubbed the “Crypto Queen,” has been murdered. It now seems the case of this Bulgarian woman, who was among the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted fugitives, is closed.
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Seven years ago, Ruja Ignatova suddenly disappeared, leaving millions of innocent victims defrauded and penniless. The story of the Crypto Queen, which has little to do with cryptocurrency or digital assets, is a fascinating and cautionary tale we present to you now following the discovery of new evidence regarding her murder.
A Genetic Scam
Conducting thorough research before any business or financial project is an essential, non-negotiable step. The massive influx of investments into the OneCoin scheme might have been avoided if the victims had researched Ignatova even briefly before trusting her project.
The 2012 Theft
Ruja Ignatova’s first scam predates the OneCoin project by about two years, starting in 2012. She, along with her father and a few other investors, purchased a metallurgy complex in Bavaria, Germany. Suspiciously, the company declared bankruptcy in less than a year.
Following the bankruptcy announcement, the group of investors and company partners accused Ruja and her father of embezzling €1 million from the company. As a result of these allegations, Ruja was sentenced to 14 months of suspended imprisonment, marking the first criminal record in her file.
Big Coin
After the company scandal, Ruja and her Swedish partner, Sebastian Greenwood, pursued a project called “Big Coin.” Although the project did not attract significant investment, it provided valuable experience for launching one of the world’s largest fraud schemes.
OneCoin
In 2014, Ruja Ignatova and Sebastian Greenwood introduced the OneCoin Ponzi scheme to the world. Branded as “a tool for everyone and akin to the Facebook of cryptocurrencies,” OneCoin captured public imagination. According to Ignatova, OneCoin was poised to dethrone Bitcoin!
The project’s slogans and promises were so compelling that Ruja Ignatova was awarded “Entrepreneur of the Year” in her homeland, Bulgaria, in 2014.
OneCoin’s operations expanded rapidly, spreading to many countries through flashy seminars. Ignatova traveled to various nations, delivering speeches and selling dreams. Her presence at events and seminars boosted trust and drew even more participants to the OneCoin system.
Amid the frenzy, Ruja spent her newfound wealth lavishly. She purchased numerous properties, including a multi-million-dollar estate in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, and a seaside mansion in Sozopol, along the Black Sea. She hosted extravagant parties aboard her luxury yacht, Davina. Her extravagance peaked in January 2017, when American pop star Bebe Rexha performed a private concert for her at one of these events.
What Fueled User Greed?
What caught attention during the seminars and media coverage was the name that cleverly directed everyone’s thoughts toward cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. However, the reality was entirely different.
The OneCoin Exchange sold educational packages that claimed to teach about cryptocurrencies. In truth, the company’s primary business was the pyramid-style sale of these packages. The courses included basic tutorials on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, as well as other topics like investing and forming part of a multi-level marketing (MLM) strategy.
Buyers of these courses earned more rewards by recruiting additional participants. This was essentially network marketing disguised with educational packages, a clever strategy to maximize profits.
Users’ dashboards displayed tokens they could use to mine OneCoin. Ironically, many educational materials were low-quality and amateurish, leading to user dissatisfaction. Even more astonishingly, many of the content was plagiarized from various websites, with the OneCoin team not even bothering to create original material.
At a gathering in Wembley, Ruja told the audience that OneCoin was “the Bitcoin killer.” She shouted, “No one will talk about Bitcoin anymore in two years!”
Bitcoin’s Rival Lacked Blockchain
Four months after Ruja’s London speech, in early October 2016, a blockchain expert named Bjorn Bjercke received an unusual job offer from a recruitment agency. A Bulgarian startup was looking for a Chief Technology Officer. The perks included an apartment, a car, and an attractive annual salary of £250,000.
Bjercke, surprised by the offer, asked the agency for details about the role. Their response revealed one of the most shocking truths about OneCoin.
Bjercke’s task was to create a blockchain for OneCoin, as the cryptocurrency company—which had been operational for quite some time—did not have one. All user data and sales records were stored on a regular computer, and all the figures, profits, and transactions shown on the platform were fabricated and manually entered by an operator.
Deaf Ears
The OneCoin project was born in 2014. Only a few months later, in early 2015, Bulgaria’s Financial Supervision Commission expressed doubts about its legitimacy.
In December 2016, Italy halted OneCoin’s operations, and UK authorities began investigating the fraud.
By 2017, several European central banks, including those in Croatia, Latvia, Sweden, and Norway, issued warnings about the pyramid nature of OneCoin.
That same year, OneCoin claimed to be the first company legally licensed by the Vietnamese government to operate as a cryptocurrency. This claim was later denied by the Vietnamese government.
A New York financial investigator later commented: “OneCoin is nothing more than a traditional pyramid scheme disguised with modern technological platforms.”
Despite warnings and bans, the rising excitement around cryptocurrencies fueled users’ greed, leading many to dismiss the warnings as efforts by banks to retain their power.
2017: A Year of Tears and Anxieties
Suspicious activity at the OneCoin Exchange began in late 2016 when the ability to buy, sell, and withdraw funds was restricted. By January 2017, withdrawals were permanently disabled, and the exchange ceased operations without explanation.
The saddest part is that only a select few insiders managed to withdraw their funds before the platform shut down. These individuals, close to the OneCoin team and aware of the impending collapse, saved their assets while others were left waiting for the system to recover.
Nine months later, in October 2017, a major gathering in Lisbon, Portugal, drew widespread attention. However, Ruja—known for her punctuality—did not appear. It marked the permanent disappearance of the OneCoin founder. Ruja’s deception was so unbelievable that some speculated she had been kidnapped or killed by banks.
In reality, Ruja went into hiding. FBI records presented in court revealed that on October 25, 2017—two weeks before her no-show in Lisbon—Ruja boarded a Ryanair flight from Sofia to Athens. This was the last confirmed sighting of her.
According to BBC documents, UK investors spent €30 million on OneCoin during the first half of 2016. In one week alone, investments reached €2 million. By 2017, total investments in the project had exceeded €4 billion across dozens of countries.
90 Years of Prison for the Queen’s Accomplices
Ruja disappeared in October 2017, just before the U.S. issued her arrest warrant. Her brother, Konstantin Ignatov, shamelessly stepped in to replace her, attempting to pocket more money in the remaining time.
However, in 2018, Sebastian Greenwood was arrested, followed by Konstantin in March 2019. Konstantin was sentenced to 90 years in prison for fraud and money laundering. Greenwood pleaded guilty to his charges in 2022 and was sentenced to 20 years in 2023.
Since Ruja’s disappearance, the FBI has worked tirelessly to locate her, offering a $100,000 reward for any information.
One credible theory suggested that Ruja underwent facial surgery and altered her appearance—a plausible way to evade capture.
Was Ruja Ignatova Murdered?
According to recent evidence, Ruja was connected to criminal networks, paying them to stay out of the FBI’s reach. She had close ties to Hristoforos Nikos Amanatidis, alias “Taki,” the leader of one of Bulgaria’s largest and most dangerous drug cartels. Taki is regarded in Bulgaria as much like El Chapo in Mexico or Pablo Escobar in Colombia.
New information from a former Bulgarian criminal, leaked to the CIA, claims that Taki killed Ruja. While unverified sightings of her persist, her murder is now considered highly likely, signaling the probable end of the OneCoin fraud saga.
Final Word
Ruja exploited societal weaknesses to her advantage. She understood that enough people were desperate, greedy, or confused enough to bet on OneCoin. She recognized that distinguishing truth from lies was increasingly difficult in an age of conflicting online information. She also correctly anticipated that regulators, law enforcement, and the media would struggle to grasp the scale of her deception. Most dishearteningly, she knew the truth would come out only after she had vanished—along with all the money.
