Among the top 10 most wanted by the FBI, the culprit of the billion-dollar scam OneCoin virtual currency, that is Ruja Ignatova – dubbed the virtual currency queen.
At the end of June, Ruja Ignatova, the perpetrator of the OneCoin virtual currency scam, was ranked in the top 10 most wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The agency is offering a reward of 100,000 to anyone who provides valuable information that could lead to the capture of Ruja Ignatova.
He is a fraudster leading the OneCoin multi-level operation. When Ignatova told investors in 2016 that the coin would quickly top the charts, becoming the most valuable cryptocurrency in the market, even surpassing Bitcoin.
However, in 2017, Ruja Ignatova took a mountain of investors’ money and fled.
In a lawsuit in Dubai in 2021, Sheikh Saoud, a member of an Arab emirate, accused her of illegally holding his 230,000 Bitcoins and had no intention of returning it.
There is a book written by Jamie Bartlett, a reporter who has been tracking Ruja Ignatova for more than four years. The book tells about the life of the “scam queen”, how she manipulated the market with OneCoin until she was wanted by the FBI and fled.
Smarter than people since childhood
Bartlett shared, Ruja Ignatova’s only desire is: “Money”
Ruja Ignatova’s family moved from Bulgaria to Schramberg (Germany) in 1990, when she was 10 years old, after the Cold War between Eastern and Western Europe eased.
In the book’s description, both Ruja Ignatova’s father and mother are just ordinary salarymen, but Ruja Ignatova alone seems to be extremely intelligent and eager to learn:
“First place in all school competitions, perfect marks in all subjects. A teacher at the school commented that Ruja Ignatova is the smartest child he has ever come in contact with. Bartlett writes.
However, due to being at a higher level, Ruja Ignatova is shunned by her friends, partly because she is quite arrogant and does not often take the initiative to talk to someone.
Bartlett commented:
“16 years old, wearing high heels, wearing red lipstick, .. she is like the queen of that school”.
At the age of 18, Ruja Ignatova received a prestigious scholarship from the University of Konstanz – Harvard Germany at that time. She obtained her doctorate after a few years and then further studied law at the University of Oxford (UK).
In 2008, Ruja Ignatova worked at a number of famous international banks, thanks to her inherent talent, she quickly climbed to important positions. Adding Russian proficiency, Ruja Ignatova regularly travels to Moscow to “explore the market”.
Easily capture the psychology of investors
The 2009 crisis left Ruja Ignatova unemployed. After that, she also quickly found a job at one of the largest investment firms in Bulgaria, but she was still not satisfied, thinking that her talent was being wasted.
“Ruja Ignatova used to do everything from fashion to cosmetics, … but still not satisfied with the money she earns.” The book is written.
At that time Ruja Ignatova knew about “cryptocurrency”.
In 2013, 1 bitcoin was worth more than 500 USD, many people thought that cryptocurrencies were a hoax for the big guys to launder money illegally, but Ruja Ignatova was not, she wanted to manipulate this market to her liking. .
In November 2013, at a conference, Ruja Ignatova proposed an option to pay pensions in cryptocurrency. During the seminar, Sebastian Greenwood – who later created OneCoin with Ignatova was attracted by its words.
The two plan to release OneCoin, what they call the “BitCoin destroyer”. The project attracted quite a bit of attention for the influence of Ruja Ignatova earlier.
Instead of the usual coin offers, Ruja Ignatova promotes and sells courses that teach people how to invest in cryptocurrencies, how to make money from this market, etc. Students register for the course as initial capital.
Although the tuition fees for these courses are not cheap, with the highest course being £5,000, due to the psychology of investors wanting to make money fast, don’t miss out (FOMO) of investors, a wave of registrations for ” get rich” exploded rapidly.
The reason for such blindness is because at that time, most people did not have much understanding of the virtual currency market, when seeing Bitcoin skyrocketing in 2013, many people couldn’t help but sigh in regret because they missed their piece. fat cake.
“Thanks to the advertising in the clouds, many examples of changing lives just by being a little faster than others have been born without being verified.” Bartlett writes.
Luxury life
To add confidence to investors, Ruja Ignatova has hired many lawyers to complete the paperwork to prove the credibility of this coin.
“Your investment will be safe.” Ruja Ignatova confirmed.
However, in reality, this is a sophisticated scam. The published information is completely fake and staged, the team of lawyers are just puppets, the OneCoin coin itself is just a “virtual” currency in the true sense of the word: no trading value, exchange, not using blockchain encryption technology means that Ruja Ignatova can adjust its value at any time.
After embracing huge sums of money from investors, Ruja Ignatova and her team of scammers begin a lavish, regal life.
They burn money on mansions, supercars, yachts, designer jewelry, etc. According to statistics, Ruja Ignatova’s gang earns more than 1 million euros a month by “trading chickens”.
“Rent a large Penhouse in Kensington during a trip to London, spend most of the day shopping, hire a personal bodyguard and someone to carry designer bags at the end of the day or after shopping sessions.”
Bartlett’s book also reveals that Ruja Ignatova spent 7 million euros to buy a luxury superyacht Davina with 6 bedrooms and an underwater bar.
Juha Parhiala, a high-class “stork” under Ruja Ignatova, owns a series of expensive supercars such as Ferrari 488, Bentley and Lamborghini Huracán inlaid with gold.
Igor Alberts, another “stork” even more willing to play when he bought an 8-storey villa right in the middle of the rich neighborhood on the outskirts of Amsterdam (Netherlands), in the middle of the yard placed a statue of him. glass.
The first person caught by the FBI’s net was Ruja Ignatova’s younger brother, Konstantin Ignatov. This move caused her to quickly flee at the end of 2017, leaving all her wealth and bewildered juniors in front of the horseshoe. OneCoin also followed that dissolved into smoke in an instant.
Attempts to capture Ruja Ignatova
Greenwood – Ruja Ignatova’s ex-husband has now been arrested on charges of fraud and stock market manipulation. Mark Scott, a lawyer representing OneCoin, admitted fraud and money laundering for Ruja Ignatova’s gang. This guy handed over $ 400 million to the FBI.
According to Bartlett, the value of assets that Ruja Ignatova scammed can be up to billions of dollars. The FBI is having a hard time verifying the identity to compensate the victims for the large amount of money.
“That achievement could make Ruja Ignatova the richest criminal in the world.”
If it is true that owning 230,000 bitcoins as mentioned at the beginning, Ruja Ignatova can completely consume them without being detected due to the anonymity of the cryptocurrency.
Bartlett thinks that Ruja Ignatova is very likely to have had plastic surgery, using a fake name to live outlaw for the rest of her life.
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