The ‘Cryptoqueen’ fugitive, who cheated millions of people out of billions of pounds, may still be alive, a top police official believes.
Ruja Ignatova was the charismatic co-founder of OneCoin, a crypto Ponzi scheme that raked in at least £3.6 billion from investors around the world.
Ignatova founded the plot in 2014, cheating three million victims before going on the run in 2017 after an arrest warrant was issued by US police.
But Bulgaria’s Bureau of Investigative Reporting and Data reported in 2023, citing police documents, that Ignatova was murdered and her body chopped and thrown into the Ionian Sea in 2018.
Now, a German police official leading an investigation into Ignatova has told the BBC that they are working under the assumption she is alive.
Speaking on The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast, the anonymous officer said: ‘Neither Bulgarian police nor any other police force has been able to provide any evidence to prove this without doubt.
‘So far, these are assumptions from my point of view… There’s no certain proof that she is alive, but there’s also no certain proof that she’s dead – that’s why it’s so hotly debated.’
Ignatova was last seen boarding a flight from Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, to Athens, Greece, and has never been seen since.
Ignatova has been allegedly spotted all over the world, including London, the Virgin Islands, Thailand, Athens, Dubai and the Mediterranean.
The sightings flooded after the Bulgaria-born German citizen was added to the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives list, with the US agency offering $5million reward for tips
‘We’ll get her, I’m convinced that we will find her,’ says officer
Given the fugitive’s ‘unlimited money’, the German investigator said Ignatova can easily disappear and jump from location to location.
She added: ‘We’ll get her, I’m convinced that we will find her. The question is always when.
‘She’s in a very good position to continue this for a very long time.
‘But experience has shown that at some point, everyone makes a mistake and I’m very much convinced that she will make a mistake, too.’
Leaked police documents accused Bulgarian drug kingpin Hristoforos Amanatidis, or ‘Taki’, organised the killing of
This was to mask his involvement with OneCoin, they claimed. Amanatidis has never been arrested.
Krasmir ‘Kuro’ Kamenov, a Bulgarian man with ties to the mafia who leaked the police papers, was killed in Cape Town, in 2023.
No arrests have been made in connection with Kamenov’s murder, which the BBC notes occurred not far from where Ignatova was spotted.
German public broadcaster ARD reported in 2024 that Ignatova had been spotted ‘alive’ in Cape Town, long a hideout for criminals on the run.
Asked about the sighting in South Africa, the German investigator said this was a ‘good tip’.
‘No essential facts have been added that would reveal the exact whereabouts of Dr Ruja Ignatova,’ she added.
‘There are indications that there were contacts with South Africa in the past, but where she might be is something else again.’
The FBI says Ignatova is wanted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud.
‘She allegedly instructed victims to transmit investment funds to OneCoin accounts in order to purchase OneCoin packages, causing victims to send
wire transfers representing these investments,’ the agency adds.
What is a crpytocurreny Ponzi scheme?
Ponzi schemes infamously end in the people on top raking in cash, and the people on the bottom losing out.
Such scams involve promoters wooing investors with promises of big returns, only for their profits to be paid using new people’s investments.
This can continue as long as new investors line up with money, and old investors don’t ask for too much of their cash all at once.
OneCoin, which was based in Bulgaria, used cryptocurrency as bait. Except that the digital coin didn’t actually exist.
‘Crypto Ponzi schemes rely on hype,’ explained Adam Smith, a consultant at The Crypto Advisor.
‘In the case of OneCoin, it was sold as a better, safer alternative to Bitcoin, but it was not a real cryptocurrency. It used a central database, or fake ledger, rather than a decentralised blockchain like Bitcoin, and claims about its increasing value were false.’
Smith said Crypto Ponzi scams ‘devastate’ victims, leaving them not only out of pocket but also with long-term mental health conditions.
He added: ‘We recently had a case where an older gentleman in his 70s had lost more than £250,000 to a crypto scam, which amounted to his entire pension savings.
‘When we spoke to him, he was looking for work at his local supermarket so he could pay the bills and keep a roof over his head.’
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