In the cryptocurrency space, there are always reports of scams and fraud, from hacking of currency exchanges to the disappearance of a currency issuer after stealing customers’ money.
No story is more famous than that of the woman behind OneCoin, who became known as the monster of cryptocurrency fraud.
According to the BBC, Ruja Ignatova, born in Sofia, Bulgaria, the woman behind OneCoin, convinced investors around the world to pay sums exceeding $4 billion, and according to other accounts, about $15 billion.😱😱
Investors participated in what was promoted as a new vision for money, presented by Dr. Ruja Ignatova (39 years old), in a series of events around the world. One of them was at Wembley Stadium in London in 2016, during which she conveyed the message that OneCoin would be “borderless, secure and easy to use.”
Dr. Ruja, as her fans knew her, would address the crowds and tell them about the progress OneCoin was making, that it was on its way to surpassing and acquiring the famous currency “Bitcoin”, and eliminating “all fake currencies that imitate our idea”, and she called herself the “Queen of Crypto”.
According to the BBC, OneCoin has succeeded in spreading its message around the world. Company documents show that individuals from 175 countries have invested in the company. Most of the investments were raised during six months in 2016, during a tour that Dr. Ruja went on.
The documents show that China alone contributed about 427 million euros in 2016, and it was clear that a large number of investments came from South Korea, Hong Kong, and Germany. British investments in this currency amounted to 96 million pounds sterling.
But in 2017, Dr. Ruja disappeared and has not been seen since, after spending her newfound wealth on multimillion-dollar properties in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, and the Black Sea resort of Sozopol, as well as a private luxury yacht. Dr. Ruja
was convicted in absentia last year in the United States on money laundering charges. The Justice Department said OneCoin was just another classic form of fraud.
In March, the FBI arrested OneCoin’s project manager, Konstantin Ignatova, Ruja Ignatova’s brother, on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
OneCoin denies all charges of fraud and says it “meets all the requirements for a digital currency.”
The big question is: Where is Dr. Ruja? 😱🌟
Earlier this year, U.S. authorities revealed that she had traveled to Athens on Oct. 25, 2017. It was her last official trip on record, and no one has known where she went since then.
There are rumours that she has Russian and Ukrainian passports, it has also been said that powerful people are protecting her in her native Bulgaria, that she could be hiding in plain sight with plastic surgery to make her unrecognisable, others that she could be in London, and finally some have suggested that she may be dead, which is only a possibility. $OM