Ruja Ignatova

Ruja Ignatova (Bulgarian: Ружа Игнатова) (born May 30, 1980) is a Bulgarian convicted fraudster. She is best known as the founder of a Ponzi scheme known as OneCoin, which The Times has described as "one of the biggest scams in history".[3][4][5] She was the subject of the 2019 BBC podcast series The Missing Cryptoqueen.[6]

Ruja Ignatova
Ignatova in 2015
Born (1980-05-30) May 30, 1980
Sofia, Bulgaria
DisappearedOctober 25, 2017 (aged 37)
Athens, Greece[1]
StatusMissing for 4 years, 6 months and 1 day
NationalityBulgaria (formerly),[2] Germany
Known forOneCoin Ponzi scheme
Criminal chargeFraud
Penalty16 months' suspended imprisonment for a previous case. Up to 90 years for the Ponzi scheme

Since 2017, she has been on the run from law enforcement, including the FBI. In early 2019, she was charged in absentia by U.S. authorities for wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering.[3]

Early life and education

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, she 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.[3] In 2005, she earned a PhD in private international law from the University of Constance 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.[7] She reportedly has also worked for McKinsey & Company.[8]

Criminal activities

In 2012, she was convicted of fraud in Germany in connection with her and 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.[9][10]

In 2013, she was involved with a multi-level marketing scam called BigCoin.[11]

In 2014, she founded a Ponzi scheme called OneCoin. On or about October 25, 2017, she boarded a Ryanair flight out of Sofia to Athens, Greece and disappeared.[1] In 2019, her brother Konstantin Ignatov pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering in connection with the scheme.[12]

Personal life

Ruja's German ex-husband works as a lawyer in Frankfurt. Their daughter was born in 2016.[3]

See also

References
  1. Papadopoulos, Yiannis. "Cryptoqueen disappears, leaving havoc in her wake". Kathimerini.
  2. "Продължава издирването на 41-годишна германска гражданка, родена у нас". MOI Press Office.
  3. "Cryptoqueen: How this woman scammed the world, then ran". BBC. November 24, 2019.
  4. Cellan-Jones, Rory (September 26, 2019). "The mystery of the disappearing 'Cryptoqueen'". BBC.
  5. Bartlett, Jamie (December 15, 2019). "The £4bn OneCoin scam: how crypto-queen Dr Ruja Ignatova duped ordinary people out of billions — then went missing". The Times.
  6. "Is OneCoin The Biggest Financial Fraud in History?". Fortune.
  7. "Abgeschlossene Promotionen | Promotionen | Forschung | Lehrstuhl für Bürgerliches Recht, Zivilprozessrecht, Internationales Privatrecht und Rechtsvergleichung - Prof. Dr. Astrid Stadler | Fachbereich Rechtswissenschaft". www.jura.uni-konstanz.de.
  8. Marson, James (August 27, 2020). "OneCoin Took In Billions. Then Its Leader Vanished". Wall Street Journal – via www.wsj.com.
  9. Stier, Frank. "Das Verstummen der Cryptoqueen". heise online.
  10. "So etwas Dubioses nie erlebt". January 20, 2012.
  11. "BigCoin & BNA: The original OneCoin Ponzi points".
  12. "'Cryptoqueen' brother admits role in OneCoin fraud". BBC News. November 14, 2019.
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