- The life or death of OneCoin founder and alleged scammer, crypto queen Ruja Ignatova, remains a mystery.
- Ignatova defrauded investors of $4.5 billion and disappeared without any verifiable trace of life or death.
In what seems like a crime thriller, the mystery of the missing mastermind behind the OneCoin Ponzi scheme, better known as crypto kingpin Ruja Ignatova, leaves more questions than answers.
In 2014, Ignatova successfully defrauded 3.5 million investors of $4.5 billion after making them unimaginable promises. Bitcoin-like returns from its cryptocurrency, OneCoin.
After the robbery, the Oxford-educated Bulgarian woman disappeared and could not be traced. Thus, the mystery of her story is fueled ten years later. Her daredevil scam earned her a spot in the FBI’s top ten most wanted fugitives.
Is Crypto Queen Ruja Ignatova Alive or Dead?
In a recent one exclusive by BBC, the media outlet tried to solve the mystery behind the Ignatova story and whether she is alive or dead.
Apparently Ignatova had links to Bulgarian organized crime, which was led by Hristoforos Nikos Amanatidis, alias Taki. Interestingly, Taki was her handler and physical security, protecting her from local and international investigations.
Furthermore, investigations pointed to possible money laundering of Taki’s ‘drug trafficking’ activities through OneCoin activities.
As U.S. and German authorities closed in on Ignatova, she was forced to flee from Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, to Athens, Greece, in 2017.
However, according to investigative journalist, Ignatova’s protector could have turned into an aggressor Dimitar Stoyanov from the outlet ‘bird.bg’.
Ignatova was reportedly murdered in late 2018 and her body was dismembered and dumped in the Ionian Sea, located off the west coast of Greece. According to the BBC report, the murder was said to have taken place on Taki’s orders.
The Mystery continues
However, the BBC report claimed it ‘could not independently verify the claim’ and saw it as a way of dismissing them from the investigation.
Another reason to take Ignatova’s alleged death with a grain of salt was the fact that she was still in the FBI’s top ten.
According to the report, Ignatova was included in the list in 2022 and remains on it at the time of writing. According to experts quoted in the report, the FBI only removes one from the list after a verified death.
So her continued presence on the FBI list gave a twist to her story. It raised the question of whether she is still alive or not.
However, the only certain thing was that her OneCoin victims would not get a reprieve yet.
They have not yet been healed, even though Taki employees have recovered Ingatova’s properties in Dubai. The properties were reportedly acquired with the proceeds of the OneCoin scam.