Matthew Miller, spokesman for the US State Department, has… Announced a reward of up to $5 million for any information leading to the arrest of German citizen Ruja Ignatova, colloquially known as the “Crypto Queen.”
Matthew Miller, spokesman for the United States Department of State, has… Announced a reward of up to $5 million for any information leading to the arrest of German citizen Ruja Ignatova, colloquially known as the “Crypto Queen.”
This is another twist in a years-long saga involving the infamous scammer behind OneCoin, which is considered one of the biggest cryptocurrency scams in history.
Earlier today, the Sofia Globe newspaper reported that Bulgaria had filed charges in absentia against Ignatova to confiscate her illegally acquired properties.
Alex DovbnyaIn July 2022, Ignatova made it to the FBI’s “most wanted” list. At the time, the agency promised to pay $100,000 for any information leading to her arrest. It is worth noting that she is also on a similar list published by Europol.
OneCoin emerged in 2014, when the cryptocurrency industry was still in its infancy. It offered educational packages on cryptocurrencies (which ended up being plagiarized), as well as tokens that could only be traded on the OneCoin marketplace. Investors were only allowed to sell a limited number of tokens. It continued to attract new victims despite widespread speculation that the project was indeed a pyramid scheme. The market ended up closing in early 2017 without warning.
Despite generating revenues worth nearly $4 billion, the token offered no value to investors, who ended up losing their money. One theory suggests that she might have been murdered by a Bulgarian criminal gang. There is also speculation that she might have drastically altered her appearance with cosmetic surgery.
Alex DovbnyaIgnatova, an ethnic Bulgarian, used to enjoy great popularity and became the face of the fraudulent scheme. In 2016, she managed to attract thousands of people to London’s Wembley Arena. In 2017, she disappeared and her whereabouts remain unknown to this day.
Konstantin Ignatov, the brother of the “Crypto Queen”, has already been behind bars for years. According to US prosecutors, he became the “de facto leader” of the scam after his sister disappeared.
