Is missing ‘crypto queen’ Ruja Ignatova the new Anna Sorokin? She’s only the 11th woman to appear on the FBI’s Most Wanted Fugitives list with her OneCoin scam – and a TV series is already in the works
- Much like Inventing Anna’s Anna Delvey, Bulgarian born Ignatova dressed to the nines, threw parties – even at London’s Wembley Arena – and charmed investors to scam them out of their money
- But Ignatova’s OneCoin Ponzi scheme is thought to be one of the biggest scams in history, defrauding unsuspecting investors out of a total of US$4 billion, say the FBI and Europol
Dr Ruja Ignatova, also known as the “crypto queen”, may ring a bell even for non bitcoin aficionados now that the FBI and Europol has named her among their 10 most-wanted fugitives. The reason? Ignatova is the founder of the cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme OneCoin, which has been dubbed one of the biggest scams in history.
Ignatova, who claimed that OneCoin would rival bitcoin, allegedly led a massive fraud of more than US$4 billion, which has impacted hundreds of thousands of investors worldwide.
Once at the forefront of the bitcoin social scene as a result of her lavish events and extravagant outfits Ignatova vanished into thin air, and has been on the run ever since.
Here’s more on the incredible rise and fall of the missing crypto queen.
She hails from Bulgaria and Germany
Born on May 30, 1980, in Bulgaria, Ignatova moved to Germany with her family when she was 10 years old. She earned a law degree from Oxford University and a PhD in private international law from the University of Konstanz in Germany. She also reportedly did a stint at McKinsey & Company. A multilingual individual, Ignatova speaks English, German and Bulgarian.
The 42-year-old Bulgarian got hitched to German lawyer Bjorn Strehl, and the couple welcomed a daughter in 2016.
How did she fool so many people with OneCoin?
Ignatova founded OneCoin in 2014 when the world was still getting to grips with cryptocurrency. She dressed up in expensive ball gowns and diamonds and held glamorous events across the world – including at London’s huge Wembley Arena – to convince potential investors that her cryptocurrency was the “bitcoin killer”.