It's mathematic. The problem, he explains, is that following the money isn't as easy as it sounds, because criminals structure their companies and bank accounts in such a way that their assets seem to disappear. Dr. Ruja Ignatova was born in Sofia, Bulgaria on May 30, 1980. Around the same time, the US authorities charged Dr Ruja in absentia for wire fraud, security fraud and money laundering. 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. This is also where Dr Ruja's husband - or perhaps ex-husband - lives and works. She had been impressed by Ruja and the upward trend in the price of OneCoin without the fluctuations other cryptocurrencies usually have. In early 2019, she was charged in absentia by U.S. authorities for wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering. So it's our blockchain technology, a SQL server with a database.". Taking seriously Alan McLean's advice about studying Dr Ruja's life before OneCoin, Georgia and I turn to the internet, which fortunately never forgets anything. There, she recruited members to promote OneCoin and sell to their friends and relatives. It took McAdam three months to go through it all, but questions were starting to form. "This is supposed to mean that you can no longer use a British company to hide behind," he says, as he scrolls down the page. McAdam started a Facebook support group for other defrauded victims of OneCoin. After that, she vanished and remains missing. Reluctantly, she agreed to a conversation on Skype. "One Coin!" "There's the answer, right from the horse's mouth, it's official," said one promoter from Alberta, Canada, in a video posted online. Another tip he gives us is to find out where she has been on her yacht. [21][22] An Interpol Red Notice followed. 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. What's he waiting for? Game over.". "So we need you to build a blockchain," he went on. They don't have a blockchain today. From that amount, he had collected $50 million in fees. Hotels near Romer Hotels near Frankfurt am Main Hauptbahnhof Hotels near Main Tower Hotels near Cathedral of St. Bartholomew (Dom St. Bartholomaus) Hotels near Stadel Museum Hotels near Palmengarten Hotels near Iron Bridge Hotels near Zoo Frankfurt Hotels near Senckenberg Natural History Museum (Naturmuseum Senckenberg) Hotels near Frankfurt am Main It represents the dark side of rapid technological change - the way that every new technology creates amazing new opportunities and possibilities for people who understand it, but also the chance to exploit the people who don't. You think, 'Wait a bit longer. She had no computer or smartphone, to do her own research. But besides loving books, he was also a master book thief. When Georgia and I called them ourselves to check, they confirmed it. They started pitching it to potential investors in 2014, promising between a fivefold and tenfold return, and referred to their investors as idiots and crazy. Some are divorced.". Before too long they had passed 100,000 - a 10-fold return. 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. I didn't even know what is a blockchain What doubt can I have?". Finding people is his speciality, and there is one thing above all he says we should focus on. The FCA did not respond to the BBC's request to comment. Find out who her friends were, what her lifestyle was like, her family.". The inescapable conclusion was that those rising numbers on the OneCoin website were meaningless - they were just numbers typed into a computer by a OneCoin employee. The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is responsible for regulating financial markets in the UK, issued a warning on its website only in September 2016. Following her studies, she became a . Between August 2014 and March 2017 more than 4bn was invested in dozens of countries. It wasn't just a fake cryptocurrency, it was an old-fashioned pyramid scheme, with the fake coin as its "product". Up to 90 years for the Ponzi scheme. [10][2] Claims that she may have studied at University of Oxford in England give no details of college, course, or date of matriculation. Alberts was brought up in a poor neighbourhood. All of them were "very up-tempo, full of beans, full of passion", she remembers. When I ask him who might be behind the threats, he won't elaborate. Men are drinking champagne from the bottle, everyone is eyeing us in a way that makes us feel very uncomfortable. That's illegal That is an anonymous shell company, as anonymous as anything that you can buy anywhere in the Seychelles or Nevis or the Marshall Islands or Vanuatu.". We called the lawyer who is (or was) married to her, and he didn't want to talk. he shouts. Following the success of Bitcoin and the subsequent explosion of its price, investors who bought early at a low price made huge returns. One day soon, she was told, she would be able to turn these coins back into euros or pounds. Following her studies, she became a consultant for McKinsey and Co. Several of the people Georgia and I interviewed spoke darkly about mysterious people and connections they didn't want to name. Just as he was boarding his flight home, he was pounced on by FBI agents, arrested, and charged with fraud in connection with OneCoin. OneCoin is no longer operational, with the token unusable and the website inactive. "Look, nothing has happened. He clicks to see the company's filing history, but where you should see company accounts, there is nothing. Daniel took me and Georgia to meet Prudence, who first introduced him to OneCoin. I explain that this is probably beyond my abilities (apart from being illegal). In 2020, it was announced that Jennifer McAdam will be portrayed by Kate Winslet in an upcoming Hollywood film about the OneCoin fraud. "I think she was so scared in the fall of 2017 that she decided to skip.". I would have just turned my back and walked away," he says. Charles Ponzi is remembered for creating the Ponzi scheme. However, in October 2017, the scammer completely vanished as authorities circled and she hasnt been seen since. A postman thought he recognised the name, but couldn't be sure. (Her) lies were designed with one goal, to get everyday people all over the world to part with their hard-earned money.. For its fans this is a revolutionary new form of currency, with the potential to sideline the banks and national currencies, and provide banking for anyone with a mobile phone. "They still exist", he says, in his garden near the village of Hay-on-Wye. In January 2022, police searched apartments and offices in Weilburg, Baden-Baden, Frankfurt am Main, Bad Homburg, Neu-Isenburg and Vaihingen. Ignatova started to refer to herself as the Cryptoqueen. I don't want to be the person that breaks the news to Daniel's mother. Far from putting an end to their financial worries, she and her friends and family had thrown a quarter of a million euros away. It added that the allegations made about it around the world were being challenged, stating: "Our partners, our customers and our lawyers are fighting successfully against this action around the globe and we are sure that the vision of a new system on the basis of a 'financial revolution' will be established. So she decided to invest her savings and the money from her inheritance from her father into OneCoin. Read about our approach to external linking. "We believe consumers should be wary of dealing with OneCoin," it said. And if sellers have invested their own money, they are victims too. Answer 1 of 6: Hello out there. "Where's the support? Here's an example: Ruja bought a very large property in central Sofia. Dr. Ruja Ignatova was born in Bulgaria on May 30, 1980. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. "You're told not to believe anything from the 'outside world'," she recalls. Some are hiding. In the FBI's' 72-year history, Ruja is only the 11th woman to appear on this list. How a con man duped struggling farmers into a pigeon breeding scheme that had fraud written all over it. [24], The Federal Bureau of Investigation added Ignatova to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, and announced at a joint press conference with IRS Criminal Investigation and United States Attorney's Office Southern District of New York, offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to her arrest. Like this one at Wembley Arena in London in 2016. I sell a box to my friends, Georgia and Phil, and make a small cut. Human error to blame for train crash - Greek PM, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. Then we started looking at some old photos of Ruja, and spotted one friend who appeared with her all the way back to 2011. It's not clear who Bjorn and Igor are talking about, or whether they are even talking about the same people, but the US Department of Justice claims to have evidence of a link between Dr Ruja's brother, Konstantin Ignatov - who took over the running of OneCoin when Ruja disappeared - and "significant players in Eastern European organised crime". In 2012, she was convicted of fraud in Germany in connection with the acquisition of a steel company obtained by Ruja and her father. 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. He didn't get it, and in December 2017 he quit. Daniel translates, and his mother's reply comes back. According to the BBC in an article dated July 2, 2022, Ignatova stashed millions of dollars in the rival Bitcoin before disappearing in 2017. All over the world, people were already investing their savings into OneCoin, hoping to be part of this new revolution. (Source: Indias Magazine) The pair are blessed with one daughter. Find out here. Ruja Plamenova Ignatova ( Bulgarian: , romanized : Rua Plamenova Ignatova; born 30 May 1980) is a Bulgarian -born German citizen and convicted fraudster. "When you talk about the amount of money that's been put into OneCoin of course there's people out there who are pissed off and would do anything to shut anyone like me up," says Bjorn Bjercke, the blockchain expert who discovered there was no blockchain, and started talking about it publicly. She started her own company, OneCoin, in 2014 with her brother Konstantin Ignatov, which was touted as a lucrative rival to the leading . Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. One week later McAdam bought a "tycoon" package, for 5,000. She is now on the FBIs list of the 10 most-wanted fugitives and is the only woman currently on the hit list. Realizing that an arrest warrant was imminent and fearing that she could spend the rest of her life behind bars, Ruja decided to flee. Mr Schneider denies obtaining the documents, which he says were passed to him on a USB memory stick by Ms Ignatova. Bjorn Bjercke is a blockchain expert and he was the first person who started speaking publicly against OneCoin. The company went bankrupt shortly after acquisition under dubious circumstances. "It's hard. But by this stage, thanks to Curry and Bjercke, she knew that a standard SQL server database was no basis for a genuine cryptocurrency. But it is controversial, because usually only a small number of people make all the money. "We gathered the teams together and we started to work like crazy," he says. The key point is that these special blockchain databases are what make cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin work. He was initially contracted by OneCoin in order to develop their blockchain for them. It suggests she is still alive, and there are documents out there somewhere which contain vital clues as to her recent whereabouts. Onecoin's Ruja Ignatova is a mysterious woman who has been on the run for over three years now. Ruja Ignatova was born in Sofia but moved to Germany when she was 8 years old. Blame is not easy to apportion. Greenwood was arrested in 2018. 2023 BBC. VIA HACHETTE BOOKS. Facebook Previously, the property belonged to a company called Abbots House Penthouse Limited,. 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.". And even then, the question remained, where had she gone next? At the gated entrance to their mansion is a 10ft-high wrought iron gate with their names and the slogan "What dreams may come". 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