Ruzha Plamenova Ignatova RUZHA PLAMENOVA IGNATOVA SCAMMED THE WORLD

BornRuzha Plamenova Ignatova · 30 May 1980 · Ruse, Bulgaria Reward$250,000 PenaltyUp to 90 years for the Ponzi schemeprisonment for a previous case.   Added30 June 2022 The so-called 'Crypto-queen' — Ruja Ignatova
     'Fake Bitcoin' -  Ruja Ignatova Scammed the World, then Vanished               Karaoke Date: Active Cash® Credit Card (youtube.com)
     WIKIPEDIA

Ruja Plamenova Ignatova (Bulgarian: Ð ÑƒÐ¶Ð° Пламенова Игнатова, romanized: Ruža Plamenova Ignatova, occasionally transliterated as "Ruga Ignatova"; born 30 May 1980) is a Bulgarian former entrepreneur who in 2019 was convicted of fraud. She is best known as the founder of a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme known as OneCoin, which The Times has described as "one of the biggest scams in history". She is the subject of the 2019 BBC podcast series The Missing Cryptoqueen and the 2022 book of the same name.

Since 2017, Ignatova has been on the run from various international law enforcement agencies. In early 2019, she was charged in absentia by U.S. authorities for wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering. She was added to the FBI Ten Most Wanted in June 2022. Ignatova is the subject of an international Interpol warrant by German authorities.

Early life and education

Born in Ruse, Bulgaria, in 1980, to a Romani family. Ignatova emigrated to Germany with her family when she was ten years old, and spent part of her childhood in Schramberg in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Claims that she may have studied at University of Oxford in England give no details of college, course, or date of matriculation. In 2005, she earned a PhD in private international law from the University of Constance in Germany with the dissertation Art. 5 Nr. 1 EuGVO – Chancen und Perspektiven der Reform des Gerichtsstands am Erfüllungsort, which discusses lex causae in conflict of laws. She reportedly has also worked for McKinsey & Company.

Criminal activities

In 2012, she was convicted of fraud in Germany in connection with her father Plamen Ignatov's acquisition of a company that shortly afterwards was declared bankrupt in dubious circumstances; she was given a suspended sentence of 14 months' imprisonment.

In 2013, she was involved with a multi-level marketing scam called BigCoin.In 2014, she founded a pyramid scheme called OneCoin.

Investigation and disappearance An episode of the FBI's series "Inside the FBI" about Ruja Ignatova and how she allegedly robbed investors of billions of dollars.

On 25 October 2017 Ignatova disappeared after being tipped off about increasing police investigations about OneCoin. In 2019, her brother Konstantin Ignatov pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering in connection with the scheme.

In 2022, prosecutors in Darmstadt, Germany confirmed an investigation of "a lawyer from Neu-Isenburg" for possible money laundering: the transfer of 7.69 million euros by Ignatova into one of her private accounts in 2016. In January 2022, police searched apartments and offices in Weilburg, Baden-Baden, Frankfurt am Main, Bad Homburg, Neu-Isenburg and Vaihingen.

Afterwards, the North Rhine-Westphalia Police and German Federal Criminal Police Office announced that Ignatova is sought for fraud charges. The Federal Criminal Police Office announced a €5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. An Interpol Red Notice followed. This listing was reciprocated by Europol adding Ignatova to its 'most wanted' list. 

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation added Ignatova to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, and announced at a joint press conference with IRS Criminal Investigation and United States Attorney's Office Southern District of New York. The FBI followed up with an episode of its podcast and YouTube series Inside the FBI devoted to Ignatova and the OneCoin case. There is currently a reward of up to $250,000 for information leading to her arrest.

Ruja Ignatova FBI

In the FBI's Most Wanted List's 72-year history, only 11 women have made it on it. The women ranged from political activists like Angela Davis to the most recent, Ruja Ignatova. 

Ignatova became the 11th woman to make it on the FBI's most-wanted list for allegedly scamming wealthy investors out of $4 billion between the end of 2014 and 2016 in a Ponzi scheme under her company OneCoin. She then boarded a plane and disappeared in 2017 and has not been seen since.  

US authorities charged Ignatova with wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering in 2019 in absentia. 

The FBI is now offering $100,000 for information on her whereabouts but suspects she may have had plastic surgery or altered how she looks in some ways. 

• The FBI's recent update to its Most Wanted list features the "Crypto Queen," who tricked investors out of billions. 
• The suspect — Ruja Ignatova — was only the 11th woman to make it onto the list in its history. 
• The women on the list range from murderers to scammers to anti-war activists.