According to the BBC, OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova, AKA the “CryptoQueen,” may be laying low in Russia to dodge extradition and criminal charges.
An investigative journalist noted that Ignatova possibly fled to Russia sometime after disappearing in 2017 and has resided in the nation ever since.
The missing ‘CryptoQueen’ started a multi-billion pyramid scheme called OneCoin in 2014. Through international marketing by an army of promoters, OneCoin defrauded investors of nearly $4 billion. Ignatova vanished when authorities came knocking, and her whereabouts or state of being were unknown by publishing time.
Frank Schneider, Ignatova’s former security advisor, supposedly said that the OneCoin founder was involved with Kremlin officials.
Ex-Bellingcat investigator Yoran Tsalov also reportedly claimed that OneCoin’s financial backer traced back to ex-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich. Tsalov surmised that Ignatova laundered millions for Yanukovich, who was famed as being a pro-Russian leader.
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Yanukovich currently resides with Russia in exile after Ukraine’s top courthouse found him guilty of treason and issued a 13-year sentence in absentia.
Ignatova’s hiding in Russia was one of many theories surrounding her disappearance. Last week, German investigators posited that OneCoin’s CryptoQueen fled to South Africa. As crypto.news reported, German detectives, citing evidence and findings, suggested that Ignatova moved to a high-brow area in Cape Town notorious for housing foreign criminals.
Her brother Konstantin visited Cape Town several times following her disappearance, further fueling suspicions. When the FBI arrested Konstantin, he declared that the CryptoQueen ran off with over $630 million to finance an escape and buy new false identities.
Konstantin served three years in a U.S. jail cell after cooperating with American authorities to uncover the OneCoin Ponzi.
Bulgarian police said Ignatova may be deceased, butchered on a yacht and tossed into the Ionian Sea. Her exact fate remained shrouded in mystery, but the hunt by authorities continued. In June, the U.S. State Department issued a $5 billion bounty for any information leading to her capture.
Meanwhile, the judicial hammer fell on other OneCoin conspirators. OneCoin’s ex-legal and compliance chief, Irina Dilkinska, was imprisoned for four years. Another lawyer, Mark Scott, was jailed for a decade back in January.
Read more: The final chapter of the Cryptoqueen: murder, money, and misadventure?