Category: Blockchain Crypto Europe
Posted by Lea Hogg Posted: Feb 22, 2023
Bulgarian news portals and media houses are reporting that Ruja Ignatova, founder of defunct OneCoin and one of the FBI’s most wanted persons was allegedly murdered in 2018. The FBI are offering a reward of US $100,000 for information. So far there is no conclusive evidence of her murder and the rumours seem to be speculation at the stage. However the news of her murder appears to be consistent with suggestions that Ignatova and OneCoin may have been part of an organized crime operation.
Ignatova disappeared after scamming investors of over US $5 billion with the promotion of pseudo cryptocurrency OneCoin that was in fact a Ponzi scheme. According to reports in the Bulgarian Press Ignatova was killed on the yacht of a drug lord after she escaped her arrest. It is alleged that the person who ordered her murder was an associate of Ignatova in the OneCoin scam. At the time of the rollout of OneCoin, Ignatova marketed it as a viable cryptocurrency that could be mined. OneCoin offered a supply of 120 billion coins. Investors were promised that it would be the next Bitcoin.
According to the press reports, Ignatova’s body was dismembered and thrown into the sea between Italy and Greece in 2018. Since her disappearance in 2017, it was believed that she may have changed her appearance with drastic plastic surgery.
Dr Ruja Ignatova
A native of Bulgaria and a citizen of Germany, she was last seen in Athens in 2017. Known as the CryptoQueen, if alive, Ignatova faces charges of money laundering, fraud and securities fraud with a maximin sentence of 80 years in a federal prison.
The OneCoin scam was launched in 2014 in Bulgaria. Recently co-founder of OneCoin Karl Sebastian Greenwood was found guilty of wire fraud and money laundering.
The OneCoin scam is one of the most notorious fraud cases in the crypto sector. SiGMA news speaking with Professor Colin Lawrence, a financial services and risk specialist, likened the OneCoin scam to the Madoff Ponzi Scheme.
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OneCoin is similar to the Madoff scam
FAQs
A reward for information leading to the arrest of Ruja Ignatova, known as the Missing Cryptoqueen, has been increased by US authorities to $5m (£4m). The Bulgarian-born German woman, 44, is wanted by the FBI for orchestrating a $4.5bn cryptocurrency scam called OneCoin.
Where was Ruja Ignatova last seen? ›
Ms Ignatova has not been seen since she stepped off a Ryanair flight in Athens, Greece, more than six years ago.
Has Dr. Ruja been found? ›
Her body has never been found and investigators say they don't have enough evidence to prosecute him. But former IRS investigator Richard Reinhardt thinks Ms Ignatova is likely to be dead. Although he has not seen any evidence linking her death to Taki, he says it fits with how drugs cartels operate.
What is the reward for Ruja Ignatova? ›
REWARD OF UP TO $5 MILLION
The U.S. Department of State is offering a reward of up to $5,000,000 for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction in any country of Ruja Ignatova, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering and securities fraud.
Does OneCoin still exist? ›
OneCoin Exchange
In January 2017, the exchange was shut down.
What is the value of OneCoin today? ›
The price of One (ONE) is $0.0004107 today with a 24-hour trading volume of $1,262,027. This represents a 0.11% price increase in the last 24 hours and a -2.07% price decline in the past 7 days.
Is the crypto queen still missing? ›
In October 2017, with US and German investigators closing in, Ignatova vanished after taking an early morning Ryanair flight from Sofia, Bulgaria, to Athens in October 2017. Despite various reports and theories as to her whereabouts in the nearly seven years since her disappearance, she has never been seen again.
Is Ruja Ignatova's brother? ›
Ruja Ignatova disappeared in 2017 when a secret US warrant was filed for her arrest, and her brother, Konstantin Ignatov, took her position at the company. Most of the leaders of the company disappeared or were arrested, though Ruja Ignatova has escaped arrest.
What is the bounty on Ruja Ignatova? ›
The US State Department has announced $5 million bounty for information that results in the arrest or conviction of Ruja Ignatova, the founder of OneCoin and dubbed the "Cryptoqueen," who disappeared in Athens in 2017.
Does crypto still exist? ›
Although Bitcoin has been around since 2009, cryptocurrencies and applications of blockchain technology are still emerging in financial terms, and more uses are expected in the future.
Dives into the beginning of OneCoin and how Ruja Ignatova, the founder of OneCoin, managed to defraud people and the authorities. She made a fortune with her giant Ponzi scheme.
What is the mystery of the Cryptoqueen? ›
Fugitive: The Mystery Of The Crypto Queen is a Channel 4 production, and tells the story of Ruja Ignatova, the Bulgaria-born German entrepreneur and creator of the pseudo cryptocurrency OneCoin.
What race is Ruja Ignatova? ›
Ignatova was born in Ruse, Bulgaria in 1980 to a Romani family.
What is the podcast about Ruja Ignatova? ›
Introducing... The Missing Cryptoqueen. In 2014, a businesswoman called Dr Ruja Ignatova launched a new cryptocurrency that promised to change money forever.
What is the reward for mining one block of Bitcoin? ›
The amount given to the successful miner depends on the blockchain. For instance, Bitcoin's block reward is currently 3.125 bitcoins plus mining fees. This reward undergoes a halving approximately every four years (or every 210,000 blocks), a process designed to control the supply of bitcoins and prevent inflation.
Who has lost the most money on crypto? ›
Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao (commonly known as CZ) was the crypto billionaire who lost the most money following the crypto crisis of 2022, with a net worth drop amounting to 82 billion U.S. dollars.
What is the sentence for OneCoin? ›
The total maximum sentence for the charges is 90 years in prison. In 2022 Greenwood pleaded guilty, and in 2023 was sentenced to 20 years for wire fraud and money laundering.
What is the largest cryptocurrency theft? ›
In May, Japanese cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin suffered a theft of bitcoin worth over $300 million at the time, marking the largest cryptocurrency-related attack so far in 2024, according to TRM's report.
