On June 11, 2016, an inspiring speech was delivered from the stage of London's Wembley Stadium. It was given by Ruja Ignatova — the founder of OneCoin. Amidst the ovations and enthusiastic cheers of the thousands-strong crowd, she proclaimed the project's cryptocurrency as the "Bitcoin killer."
Cameras captured the ecstatic faces of participants who unconditionally believed every word of their "crypto queen." About a year later, she would vanish without a trace along with billions of dollars and later be listed among the world's most wanted criminals.
Coinpaper recalled the biography of the creator of the largest scam in cryptocurrency history, reconstructed the timeline of her escape, and tried to find out what happened to her
Life before OneCoin
Ruja Plamenova Ignatova was born on May 30, 1980 in the Bulgarian city of Ruse. At the age of 10, she emigrated with her family to Germany, where she later obtained citizenship. Her school teachers described her as an unusually intelligent but arrogant student - for all her charisma, she made no friends. Judging by further biography, the probable reason was in the priorities - she sought success and fame, preferring personal ambitions to social contacts.
Thus, in 2005, Ignatova became a PhD holder in international commercial law at the University of Konstanz (Germany). This confirms the institution's website. It also says she was stripped of her degree for "unworthy behavior."
According to her personal statements and media reports, Ignatova graduated from Oxford University in 2004 with a LLM degree in European law and comparative law. However, there is no confirmation in the sources. Like many other traces of Ignatova, this one was either erased from the archives or never existed;
At the time of writing it was possible to find an article in PDF format about Ignatova, written, judging by the intro and information on the main page of the site, by a member or representative of OneCoin.
It is also impossible to confirm the fact of her work in McKinsey & Company. The author of the same article writes that "people are trying to find evidence of her work in these companies", and "Dr. Ruja herself, as far as I know, did not respond to all the accusations against her". He provides no evidence of collaboration with the firm, other than a link to OneCoin's defunct website.
From this point on, there are more mysterious pages in her career. According to Questona, Ignatova was listed in Bulgaria's Commercial Register as a manager of at least 30 companies and was the sole owner of at least five firms. According to journalists, some of the organizations were part of the country's largest investment fund Tzvetelina Borislavova, which Ignatova managed for some time (no confirmation could be found).
If this is true, the future "cryptocurrency queen" was close to Bulgaria's financial and political elite: Borislavova is the ex-wife of Boyko Borisov (the country's former prime minister), a well-known businesswoman with connections in banks, government agencies and politics. Although there is no direct confirmation of Ignatova's role in the management of the structure, it is possible that such connections could prove useful in the subsequent sustainability of OneCoin in Bulgaria.
In 2012, the 32-year-old Ignatova found herself at the center of her first scandal. Together with her father, she purchased a factory in a difficult financial situation. According to media, they tried to export the production equipment to Bulgaria, but the shipment was intercepted. Ignatova was charged with fraud and given a suspended sentence (original article removed, copy from the web archive).
The first step to OneCoin was Ignatova's participation in the BigCoin network marketing scheme. According to the portal BehindMLM, there she met Sebastian Greenwood, with whom she would later launch her "project".
Ignatova founded the One World Foundation (One World Foundation) in early 2014. A deleted page of the Bulgarian Ministry of Justice (copy via web archive) about the organization's goals states:
"To create and develop the knowledge, skills and competencies of children and young people in modern technology, science, culture, health and civil society, [...] to promote their active inclusion in social and economic life, to contribute to the fight against unemployment [...]".
According to the document, in order to achieve its goals, the foundation could carry out additional business activities in the form of paid consultations, training, conferences and other public events. According to some reports, the organization was part of a future fraudulent scheme.
The path to the "cryptotron"
The OneCoin project was launched in August 2014. It was positioned as a high-yield cryptocurrency, in the work with which investors profited not only from the growth of the asset, but also for attracting new participants. From inception through the third quarter of 2016, OneCoin Ltd. generated sales revenue of €3.353 billion and profits of €2.232 billion, according to data from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Resume, charisma and self-confidence helped Ignatova in the first stages, but to gain the trust of thousands of people around the world required building an image of a real "cryptocurrency queen". This required not only courage, but also talent, which she possessed to the fullest extent.
Ignatova became a living legend for OneCoin followers: a successful, bright woman whose goal was to make everyone who joined the project rich and happy. She skillfully used her academic background - at every event, at every acquaintance, she was introduced as Dr. Ruja. Her degree and experience at McKinsey opened the door to an educated, and therefore richer, audience;
A business woman who launched a project with a cryptocurrency focus that was then little understood by anyone has attracted the attention of the conservative public.
"She timed her scheme perfectly, taking advantage of the frenzied speculation in the early days of cryptocurrency," said later U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams.
She was succesful in speaking at an event organized by The Economist, and in 2014 Ignatova won the title of "Businesswoman of the Year" in Bulgaria. At some point, potential investors began to receive at meetings an unqualified confirmation of the recognition of Ignatova's achievements - Forbes magazine with her photo. The cover became yet another diamond in the collection of her virtues - so brilliant that no one ever thought to check its authenticity.
And it was necessary to check - only later it turned out that it was not an editorial cover of the international edition, but a paid advertising insert in the Bulgarian version. Until that moment, however, Ignatova's image next to the Forbes logo had become entrenched in people's minds as a symbol of legitimacy and success.
Ignatova didn't just deceive - she built a system in which people themselves wanted to believe the myth, and critical thinking gave way to emotion, faith, and a thirst for immediate profit.
She turned herself into a brand. "Cryptocurrency Queen" was both inaccessible and close to the people: she went on stage as a world star and promised people a "financial revolution", responding to their experiences.
One of Ignatova's most colorful public appearances was her performance at London's Wembley. Under the fireworks, she went on stage in a red dress to the song Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys and ambitiously promised that in a couple of years the first cryptocurrency "everyone will forget about it".
The OneCoin founder's ability to create an atmosphere of exclusivity and unattainability around her has formed a kind of cult around her.
"Ignatova had everything a messiah usually needs. From the paraphernalia - high school diplomas, a Ph.D. degree, and a picture on the cover of Forbes magazine. The doctorate was real, unlike the cover of the magazine," noted sociologist and professor at the London School of Economics Eileen Barker.
However, her talent alone was clearly not enough - the image of Ignatova and the project was supported by an entire team. According to words of one of the participants, investors were indoctrinated that the "outside world" was hostile to them, and bitcoiners were "haters". Any discontent - both internal and external - was suppressed. For example, after creating an English-language entry about the project in Wikipedia, its attempts were changed dozens of times, deleting criticism and replacing it with marketing materials;
By 2017, OneCoin was a classic pyramid scheme: money from new depositors "fed" the previous ones, there was no real economic activity or product. At the top was Ignatova and her associates: Greenwood, younger brother Konstantin, Frank Schneider, and some others. It's likely that by then, the "cryptocurrency queen" was already aware of the law enforcers' intentions and was making plans to escape.
Disappeared
By the end of 2016 - beginning of 2017, OneCoin began to be increasingly talked about in the public space as a pyramid scheme. Regulators in a number of countries became interested in the project, and investors began to worry about the constant postponement of the launch of the eponymous exchange and the lack of dividends.
According to media reports, Ignatova knew from sources that she didn't have long to stay free. On October 12, 2017, a court in the Southern District of New York issued a warrant for her arrest on charges of money laundering and securities fraud. On October 25, Ignatova flew from Sofia to Athens on a Ryanair flight, the last credible appearance of the OneCoin founder in official documents.
In the eight years since the "cryptocurrency queen" disappeared, neither the FBI nor Europol have been able to find out her whereabouts. According to the authorities, the person involved in numerous criminal cases was well prepared for her escape: converted a significant part of the stolen money into cash and jewelry, could change her appearance with the help of plastic surgery and used forged documents;
The main version held by the investigation is that Ignatova fled to a country where there is protection from extradition. Some journalists believe that she may hide in Russia - allegedly because of ties "with several people and interests related to the Kremlin." Her brother Konstantin, in particular, has spoken about this.
German police also checked the information voiced in the documentary Die Kryptoqueen - allegedly the wanted person is in Cape Town. However, the data was not confirmed.
Southeast Asia, Latin America and the UAE were named as possible safe havens. The latter was studied not only because of the actions of her partners - in the fall of 2017, they tried to transfer a large sum through local banks, and some top managers of the project allegedly moved there - but also because of Ignatova's own ties to the country;
In 2015, through a shell firm, Oceana Properties Ltd. purchased a penthouse in Dubai overlooking the Palm Jumeirah for $2.7 million. Four years later, a new owner bought the property for $1.6 million, but who was on the seller's side is unknown. The transaction took place after criminal charges were filed against Ignatova.
In February 2023, journalists presented a second version of Ignatova's disappearance - in November 2018, she was killed on a yacht in the Ionian Sea on the orders of Bulgarian criminal mastermind Christoforos Amanatidis, known as Taki;
This was allegedly reported to the police by an informant - he relayed the words of Georgi Vasiliev, one of Amanatidis' cronies. The latter, in an inebriated state, blurted out that "Taki took measures to make Ignatova disappear" because of the need to "erase traces of his participation in her fraudulent scheme." According to Vasiliev, the "cryptocurrency queen" was killed on the yacht, dismembered and thrown overboard;
There is no obvious evidence of Ignatova's death. But there are several indications of her connection to the criminal mastermind:
- Bulgarian police suspected that Amanatidis was using OneCoin to launder funds;
- U.S. government prosecutors stated (without naming names) that the head of security was a major drug trafficker from Bulgaria who was probably involved in Ignatova's disappearance;
- according to journalist Dimitar Stoyanov, most of Ignatova's Bulgarian property is now being used by people connected to Taki;
- a source close to her said she may have paid Amanatidis up to €100,000 a month; and Schneider confirmed (without naming names) her association with "crooks" and "gangsters".
"I won't tell you who, because I have a family. [...] This is really serious organized crime," Schneider stated.
Some journalists admit that the rumors about Ignatova's death are just a maneuver to throw everyone off the trail. The scheme as a whole works: long absence of movement on the case reduces interest to it, and it is not excluded that in time the hype will settle down and the search will be less active.
In favor of the version of murder says the fact that for too long there were no signs of life from Ignatova - no traces of movement, no financial transactions, no reports of at least a little similar people.
For someone with sums as large as the OneCoin founder's, this is unusual: sooner or later something would have come up. Even her $15 million yacht, named after her daughter, remains unclaimed - either it was not sold in time, or it is an asset deliberately left aside to avoid attracting attention.
According to journalists, the 44-meter yacht has been moored in the port of Sozopol since 2017. The annual mooring fee for the 25-meter vessel is 14,000 leva (more than $78,400 at the exchange rate at the time of writing). None of the employees interviewed by the Blitz portal answered who paid for her stay in port or how.
"I don't have a client Ruja Ignatov. I know which yacht you are talking about, but it is not in Ruja's name, but in the name of the company," explained one of the harbor employees.
None of the versions has been confirmed yet. The investigation assumes that Ignatova is alive, and authorities will continue to hunt for her until they have irrefutable evidence of her death. However, in eight years, no credible evidence of her movements or attempts to use the assets has ever emerged.
Conclusion
In May 2022, Europol included Ruja Ignatova on its Most Wanted List. The FBI included the founder of OneCoin on a similar list. Information about her whereabouts could bring the informant $5 million, but as of April 2025, the fate of the "cryptocurrency queen" is still unknown;
Ignatova built a carefully crafted image and capitalized on the moment when the crypto market was in a phase of rapid growth and weak regulation. But OneCoin was made possible not only because of her actions, but also because of the willingness of thousands of investors to believe in the promise of quick profits.
This is not just a story about a person who managed to create one of the largest crypto pyramid schemes and avoid legal consequences (at least for now). It's a story about how, in the midst of hype and a lack of critical thinking, trust turns into vulnerability.
