What happened to Ruja Ignatova and where is the ‘missing cryptoqueen’ now?

Bulgarian ‘cryptoqueen’ Ruja Ignatova, who is amongst the FBI’s top ten most wanted for her fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme is still at large.

In 2022, Ruja Ignatova, now 44, was put on the list after feds said the self-professed ‘crypto queen’ scammed investors out of more than $4billion, with a Ponzi scheme though her now-defunct company, OneCoin.

Vanishing into thin air in 2017, the Bulgarian-born fraudster remains a fugitive, with officials offering $100,000 for information on her whereabouts.

She was added to the list in June 2022, after she allegedly defrauded investors with her $4 billion cryptocurrency pyramid scheme, and a £11 million penthouse believed to belong to her was up for sale in January 2023.

But where is the Bulgarian mastermind now? 

What is she thought to have done? 

Ignatova allegedly used her OneCoin cryptocurrency to defraud billions from investors across the globe between 2014 and 2018. 

Investigators believe Ignatova was tipped off in 2017 after a U.S. District Court in New York issued a warrant for her arrest, leading the alleged scammer to travel to Greece and disappear. 

Dubbed the ‘Cryptoqueen,’ Ignatova, a lawyer, co-founded OneCoin in 2014 as the ‘Bitcoin killer,’ luring investors to purchase packages her cryptocurrency.

Investigators said that a key part of her business model was to push investors into selling additional packages of OneCoin to friends and family, which was essentially a pyramid scheme to pay out those at the top.

‘Ignatova targeted individuals who may not have fully understood the ins and outs of cryptocurrencies but were moved by Ignatova’s impressive resume and the marketing strategies used by OneCoin,’ the FBI said in a statement.

The Bulgarian-born Ignatova is only the 11th woman to have been placed on the FBI’s most wanted list in its 74-year history – and remains the only woman on its top 10.  

She is also wanted in Germany through an Interpol Red Notice, which warns that she may have surgically changed her appearance in order to avoid capture.

Investigators said she was living in luxury before traveling to Sofia, Bulgaria, after a warrant was issued for her arrest on October 12, 2017.

She was then reported traveling from Sofia to Athens, Greece, on October 25, and has not been seen since.

In 2022, authorities believed she could be traveling with a fake German passport to the United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria, Russia, Germany and other parts of Eastern Europe.

The Bulgarian-born Ignatova is only the 11th woman to have been placed on the FBI’s most wanted list in its 74-year history – and remains the only woman on its top 10

Where is she now? 

But in January 2023, it emerged lawyers representing her made a formal claim to a four-bedroom property in Kensington, listing the OneCoin founder as the flat’s ‘beneficial owner’ on Companies House.

The revelation comes after a joint probe by Jamie Bartlett and the BBC in 2021 established the missing ‘Cryptoqueen’ was connected to a property in the exclusive Abbots House apartment block.

The same flat was reportedly on the market for £11 million via Knight Frank, which describes the home as an ‘impressive four bedroom penthouse’, in one of the most ‘interesting developments’ of the fugitive’s story, Mr Bartlett said.

‘The world’s most wanted woman is now officially listed as the ultimate beneficial owner of a London penthouse,’ he told iNews.

Ruja Ignatova allegedly scammed investors around the world to collect $4 billion for her OneCoin cryptocurrency, which was a pyramid scheme

‘It suggests she is still alive, and there are documents out there somewhere which contain vital clues as to her recent whereabouts.’

It is believed Ignatova stayed at the flat briefly in 2016 but that it has remained largely empty since then, with the i newspaper claiming it was occasionally visited by Ignatova’s brother Konstantin and Sebastian Greenwood, OneCoin’s co-founder. Both have pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges in the US.

Her whereabouts are still unknown but it is thought she is still alive. 

The Missing Cryptoqueen: Dead or Alive? will show on BBC One’s Panorama at 8pm.