The luxurious life of the & to queen & who holds more than 230,000 Bitcoin and is wanted by the FBI
Ruja Ignatova has had many successes since childhood and is known as the “crypto queen”. Before being wanted by the FBI due to fraud, she also had a lot of experience in the banking sector. Ruja Ignatova was very successful before swindling billions of dollars from the OneCoin cryptocurrency project and was issued an arrest warrant by the FBI.
In early July, Ruja Ignatova was listed by the FBI as one of the 10 most wanted train defectors. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has offered a reward of $100,000 to anyone who provides information leading to the arrest of Ruja Ignatova.
“Queen of digital currency” Ignatova is wanted after appropriating billions of dollars through the multi-level cryptocurrency project OneCoin. In 2016, when introducing OneCoin, Ruja Ignatova asserted that this would be the strongest digital currency in the world in the future and could usurp the throne of Bitcoin. However, in 2017, she ran away with a huge investment amounting to billions of dollars from investors.
In a 2021 lawsuit in Dubai, the “crypto queen” was accused of holding more than 230,000 illegal Bitcoins given to her by a member of the Arab emirate.
British reporter – Jamie Bartlett wrote a book about the “cryptocurrency queen”. He hunted Ruja Ignatova for four years. The book tells about her life, how Ruja Ignatova manipulated the OneCoin market and until she became a special wanted subject of the FBI.
Smarter than others and difficult to approach
According to Bartlett’s description, Ruja Ignatova is a very unapproachable person. “She really wants to be rich.” In 1990, after the collapse of the “iron curtain” – the boundary between Eastern Europe and Western Europe during the Cold War – Ignatova’s family moved from Bulgaria to Germany. At that time, she was only 10 years old.
After moving to Germany, Ruja Ignatova’s father worked in a tire shop. Her whole family lived in a small house above a butcher shop. In her book, Bartlett describes Ruja Ignatova as a very good student.
Even with her parents’ strict standards, Ruja has always been special. At school, Ruja Ignatova was an excellent student in all subjects and was always at the top of her class. “A teacher at Schramberg described Ruja as the smartest student he had ever taught” – according to Bartlett.
Although she studied very well, she lived a rather closed life. Other students commented that Ruja Ignatova was an unapproachable and quite arrogant person. At the age of 16, Ruja walked the hallways in high heels and bright red lipstick, as if the hallways were her catwalk.
At the age of 18, the “Queen of Cryptocurrency” received a prestigious scholarship from Konstanz University. This is a school known as “Germany’s Harvard”. By 2005, Ruja Ignatova completed the program and received her doctorate. After that, she studied for a master’s degree in comparative law at Oxford University (UK). According to Bartlett, Ignatova is very smart and studies well, but like before, she is still very difficult to approach.
By 2008, Ignatova was working at a consulting company in Bulgaria. Then became a representative of some famous banks in the world. Thanks to her fluency in Russian, Ruja Ignatova regularly travels to Moscow to work as a consultant for Russian banks in penetrating the European market.
According to Bartlett, Ruja Ignatova is someone who is always ready to answer people’s emails within minutes, whether they are received day or night. She once shared with everyone that she did not want to have children.
Taking advantage of FOMO psychology
In 2009, due to the impact of the financial crisis, the company where Ruja Ignatova worked closed. Therefore, she is unemployed. Although she later found a job at Bulgaria’s largest investment firm, Ignatova still felt dissatisfied.
Bartlett’s book mentions that Ignatova wanted to “become a famous face in fashion, business and city politics but was not yet rich enough to do so.”
Ruja Ignatova found another way to change her life and she started researching Bitcoin. By early 2013, this electronic currency had a value exceeding 500 USD. Although it is praised by many people, there are still opinions that Bitcoin is just a tool for drug traffickers and money launderers. Therefore, she wanted to create a superior version of cryptocurrency.
By November 2013, Ignatova became a speaker for a cryptocurrency conference in Singapore. Here, she stated her plan to provide pensions in cryptocurrency. The seminar was attended by Sebastian Greenwood – who later collaborated with Ignatova to create OneCoin.
According to Bartlett, Ignatova and Greenwood hatched a plan to create OneCoin – the currency she herself dubbed the “Bitcoin killer” and the future of money. Thanks to its great influence in the financial sector, Ignatova’s project has attracted a lot of attention from investors.
In 2016, at an event held at the SSE Arena (London), Ignatova stepped on stage to the music This Girl Is on Fire! by Alicia Keys. In her book, Bartlett describes: “Ruja Ignatova confidently strutted with her long black hair, dark red lipstick, red cape with sparkling details and diamond earrings. Everything represents success and charm.”
Instead of directly promoting her cryptocurrency, Ignatova sold videos and leaflets about cryptocurrency investing. When purchasing these products, customers will be given a certain amount of Onecoin. The highest price is £5,000 for the “Tycoon Trader” course.
Taking advantage of people’s Fomo mentality, Ignatova succeeded and created a huge wave of buying and selling. According to Bartlett’s comments, at that time, investors did not have much knowledge about cryptocurrency, many people felt sorry for not investing in Bitcoin.
In 2013, when Bitcoin prices skyrocketed, many people changed their lives by owning this cryptocurrency. In the market, there are more and more stories that change their lives not because they have good knowledge or skills, but because they invested early.
Luxurious life
When Onecoin was launched, many people had doubts about the multi-level model of this virtual currency. To solve the problem, Ignatova invited lawyers to participate in monitoring and publishing the operating process, ensuring transparency. She gave assurances that investors’ deposits would be safe.
However, all of Ignatova’s promises were just lies. The information published from the OneCoin project is just information “copied” and “cooked” from other websites. The announced legal team is just a puppet and OneCoin does not have Blockchain. Therefore, the value of this currency can be manipulated by Ignatova at any time.
“Fake values, fake auditing companies, fake exchanges and fake courses… Everything is a lie,” Bartlett wrote.
After receiving a huge investment in OneCoin, Ignatova and her associates began a luxurious life, spending money like water. They started buying mansions, super cars, clothes and designer items. According to Bartlett’s book, Onecoin brokers earned millions of Euros in commissions each month.
In December 20216, Ignatova went on a 2-week trip to London, during which time she lived in a Penthouse in Kensington and bought a lot of branded clothes, handbags, and jewelry.
The “Queen of Cryptocurrency” also spent nearly 7 million USD to use the Davina yacht. This is a super yacht with 6 rooms, bar, massage room and underwater observation area.
Another founder of OneCoin, Juha Parhiala, bought a Thai resort and bought a series of supercars such as Ferrari 488, Bentley and golden Lamborghini Huracán.
However, those are still not the people who spend the most money. The most luxurious person is Igor Alberts. He bought an 8-story mansion in a rich neighborhood on the outskirts of Amsterdam. In front of the villa is a 3m welcome gate with many statues made from fiberglass.
The first person arrested by the FBI was Ignatova’s younger brother Konstantin Ignatov. This move has made the “crypto queen” wary. When she knew she was on the radar, she fled in 2017. Ignatova was lost on a flight from Sofia to Athens. She left behind her lover, younger brother and associates entangled in the cycle of labor. From then on, OneCoin also quickly collapsed.
Where is the “Queen of Cryptocurrency”?
An associate of Ignatova, Greenwood, was detained in the US on charges of fraud, money laundering and securities fraud. Greenwood’s gold and assets were also confiscated by Thai authorities.
Armenta and Konstantin admitted their crimes. OneCoin’s lawyer, Mark Scott, was also convicted of money laundering and returned $400 million to the police.
According to Bartlett, Ignatova’s net worth could reach billions of dollars. Police are having difficulty making a list of victims and identifying the victims because the amount of money is too large.
In a 2021 lawsuit in the UAE, Ignatova was accused of illegally holding 230,000 of Sheikh Saoud’s Bitcoins and having no intention of returning the virtual currency. Currently, the value of this amount of money can be up to 9 billion USD.
According to Bartlett: “”The above figure is enough to make Ignatova one of the richest criminals in the world.” If Sheikh Saoud’s allegations are true, Ignatova could access it without being tracked because the cryptocurrency has an anonymous feature.
In 2019, Ignatova was charged in absentia by the US attorney’s office in Manhattan due to securities fraud, fraud and money laundering. By early July, the “queen of cryptocurrency” was listed by the FBI as one of the 10 most wanted people. If caught, Ignatova could face up to 90 years in prison.
According to Bartlett, there are many rumors that Ignatova is having plastic surgery and using a fake name. The British reporter hunted the “queen of cryptocurrency” from Greece to France and Dubai. Ignatova could be living somewhere at sea with a new name, a new face, an outlaw for years with wealth and access to Bitcoin anonymously.
