The Federal Bureau of Investigation added Dr. Ruja Ignatova, the self-described “cryptoqueen,” to its list of the 10 Most Wanted Fugitives on Thursday. Ignatova is accused of being the mastermind of one of the largest cryptocurrency fraud schemes ever (June 30).
The 42-year-old woman, who was born in Bulgaria, is suspected by investigators of scamming people out of more than $4 billion (€3.83 billion) through the cryptocurrency business she created in 2014.
Ignatova has been missing since 2017, when US authorities filed the first arrest warrant for her, and the FBI is now offering a $100,000 reward for any information that may result in her capture. According to Forbes, she is just the 11th woman to be listed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List in the list’s 72-year existence.
Ruja Ignatova had an impressive CV before running one of the most well-known cryptocurrency frauds, including an Oxford law degree and a stint with McKinsey.
After founding OneCoin Ltd. in 2014, the “cryptoqueen” started to promote her cryptocurrency as a “bitcoin killer.” Investigators claim that Ignatova made fraudulent claims in order to get substantial sums of money from investors, many of whom were unfamiliar with how to invest in cryptocurrencies. The business had investors from more than 3 million investors from over a hundred countries, and it functioned globally. Records found during the inquiry show that OneCoin alone produced staggering €3.353 billion in sales revenue and €2.232 billion in “profits” between the fourth quarter of 2014 and the third quarter of 2016.
Ignatova allegedly offered customers a fee if they sold OneCoin to other individuals in an effort to entice even more people into purchasing her fictitious currency. She also allegedly promised investors large returns at low risk.
It was created with the express intention of scamming investors, according to IRS Special Agent in Charge John R. Tafur, who termed it “an old swindle with a virtual twist.”
According to Ignatova, the “exit plan” for OneCoin was to “take the money and go and blame someone else,” according to an email that was uncovered during the inquiry.
According to investigators, it was really a Ponzi scam from the beginning that was misrepresented as a cryptocurrency. Ponzi schemes are a type of fraud in which a perpetrator guarantees investors above-average returns at little to no risk. By gaining new investors, early investors are reimbursed. Investors lose their money when there are not enough participants to support additional rounds of investment.
The false statements Ignatova and other OneCoin representatives are accused of making a number of false and deceptive claims to deceive the scam’s victims. They had stated that OneCoin’s value was determined by market supply and demand and that it was “mined” using mining servers, with the price allegedly rising from €0.50 to over €29.95 per coin as of January 2019. In actuality, OneCoin was not mined at all; instead, Ignatova and her accomplices set the cryptocurrency’s value entirely internally.
In 2017, after being sought out by investigative organisations from all over the world, the “cryptoqueen” vanished into thin air.
Ignatova bugged her boyfriend’s flat since she was beginning to have doubts about him. She promptly hopped on a flight from Bulgaria to Greece after learning that he was helping the FBI investigate OneCoin, and hasn’t been seen since.
She can speak German, English, and Bulgarian, and she could be using a false identity. She had black hair and brown eyes, but according to the New York Post, police think she may have altered her look.
