From crypto queen to global fugitive: OneCoin’s Ruja Ignatova disappeared with billions, leaving a mystery still unsolved.

For eight years, the world has speculated about the fate of Ruja Ignatova: the so-called “Cryptoqueen” who vanished with billions after pitching OneCoin, a classic Ponzi scheme, leaving behind a trail of lies, lawsuits, and a mystery that refuses to die.

Crypto.news spoke with those who have dug deep into her story to get their take on where she might be now.

Shortly on her background as context: born in May 1980 in Bulgaria, Ruja Ignatova moved to Germany with her family at the age of ten, settling in Schramberg, Baden-Württemberg. She pursued higher education with distinction, earning a doctorate in private international law from the University of Konstanz in 2005. She even had a brief academic stint at the University of Oxford.

Before rising to infamy as the “Cryptoqueen,” Ignatova worked at McKinsey & Company as a consultant. However, her business ventures soon took a questionable turn. In 2012, she and her father, Plamen Ignatov, were convicted of fraud in Germany related to the acquisition and subsequent bankruptcy of a firm.

“The next Bitcoin”

It may not be widely known, but OneCoin wasn’t Ignatova’s first venture into crypto.

In 2013, she was involved in a multi-level marketing scam called BigCoin. Reports indicate that BigCoin was launched by John Ng and based in Hong Kong, with the project marketed using the usual MLM cryptocurrency pitch: “We’re gonna be the next Bitcoin.”

It’s not clear when, but at some point, the project was joined by Ronnie Skold, Sebastian Greenwood, Nigel Allen, and Ruja Ignatova herself. Long story short, BigCoin didn’t make it, as it turned out to be an ordinary Ponzi scheme, operating without a blockchain at all. By 2014, Ignatova left BigCoin to co-found a new venture with Sebastian Greenwood, better known to the world as OneCoin.

Second attempt

While Ruja Ignatova was the mastermind behind the project, Sebastian Greenwood was a key figure in the operations of OneCoin. Unlike Ignatova, though, Greenwood was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The two branded OneCoin as a revolutionary cryptocurrency poised to kill Bitcoin. Through high-profile events and persuasive marketing, they convinced thousands — if not millions — to invest, raising an estimated $4 billion globally. And still, like BigCoin, OneCoin also wasn’t operating on any blockchain, which led to the project’s crash three years after the launch.

On the run?

As authorities doubled down on their investigations, Ignatova vanished. In October 2017, she boarded a flight from Bulgaria, Greece and… disappeared. Without a trace. Over the years, theories about her fate have ranged from surgical alterations to mafia assassinations. Some reports even suggested that she was murdered on a yacht in the Ionian Sea on the orders of a Bulgarian crime figure, with her body allegedly dismembered and discarded.

There’re also rumors that Ignatova might actually be on the run, hiding in South Africa, Dubai, or even in Russia.

German documentary filmmaker Johan von Mirbach, who directed the 2022 investigative documentary “The Cryptoqueen – The Great OneCoin Fraud” doesn’t buy theories about Ignatova’s death. In an interview with crypto.news, Mirbach said he doesn’t believe in theories about her death, as there are too many “failed efforts to lay false tracks about her whereabouts.”

“I have talked to security sources from South Africa and Germany. There are investigations going on about where she could hide in South Africa. But nobody can tell where she really is. She could be in South Africa, in Dubai or — as you claim — in Russia or elsewhere. I’m convinced though that she is still alive as there are so many failed efforts to lay false tracks about her whereabouts.”

Johan von Mirbach

In June 2022, the FBI placed Ignatova on its ten most wanted fugitives list, initially offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to her arrest. By June 2024, that bounty had grown to $5 million. While Ignatova’s whereabouts aren’t clear, legal proceedings surrounding her name continue up to these days.

New opportunity

For instance, in August 2024, London’s High Court issued a worldwide freeze order on assets linked to Ignatova and her associates following revelations that OneCoin promoters had invested in luxury properties in the United Arab Emirates, including a $2.7 million penthouse in Dubai.

By late 2024, investigators had focused their search on Cape Town, South Africa, with speculation that she was living in an exclusive enclave under a false identity.

However, new reports in November 2024 suggested that Ignatova may instead be hiding in Russia. According to journalist Yordan Tsalov, who specializes in Kremlin affairs and has worked with Bellingcat, a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group, Ignatova has ties to individuals connected to the Russian government.

Tsalov says these links were confirmed by Ignatova’s former security adviser, Frank Schneider, a former Swiss intelligence officer who was hired by OneCoin and later interviewed by Tsalov for a BBC series.

Commenting on the scale of the OneCoin scam, Mirbach says the crypto industry is an “incredible space” not only for new businesses but also for criminals who could gain “much more than with simple analogue frauds.”

“They can just scale their scam to another level. The same mechanism that promotes and boosts online/digital business boots online fraud. Mobsters will also always go into news unexplored and unregulated markets and follow what is coming up.”

Johan von Mirbach

Now, Mirbach says he’s just waiting for the “first AI-driven fraud that is coming up with this new opportunity.”

Crypto scams are surging across the United States, with the FBI’s latest cryptocurrency report revealing that Americans lost a staggering $5.6 billion in 2023—a worrying 45% increase from 2022. Alarmingly, older adults, particularly those over 65, were hit hardest, collectively losing more than $1.6 billion. California has borne the brunt of these losses, recording the highest state total at $1.1 billion.

What makes these losses even more striking is the volume of financial fraud complaints received by the FBI compared to total losses reported crypto-related crimes, which accounted for around 10% of complaints received but nearly 50% of total losses to financial schemes in 2023. This points to the current effectiveness of crypto scams in extracting large sums of money from victims. The decentralized nature of cryptocurrency may also play a part in this, with a lack of regulation and relative irreversibility of transactions once made, investors must protect themselves, but if they are unable to, they are highly vulnerable to scams.

The FBI is working to proactively warn victims about possible scams as bad actors continue to seek cryptocurrency through fraudulent investments, tech support, romance scams, and employment scams. Despite this effort, evolving financial technology is still unfamiliar to investors, and a lack of financial education has made them more susceptible to crypto scams.

What puts crypto investors at risk?

The crypto industry’s financial environment, with its volatility and potential for lucrative returns, may make investors more susceptible to risky investing decisions and scams. The fear of missing out has been reported to drive investment choices for 8/10 investors. The psychological pressure and rushed decision-making associated with FOMO can be exploited by scammers, and with a lack of verified educational resources for investors, FOMO will continue to have a distinct impact on investor vulnerability.

Research from InvestiFi has also found that 35% of investors rely on internet searches for financial knowledge to help manage their investments, while 25% don’t use any sources. Forty percent of 18-25-year-olds use financial influencers for their financial knowledge, and 50% of those 55 and older do not have a source for their financial knowledge, leaving them susceptible to poor investment decisions.

This reliance on informal sources creates a multitude of investor problems. Fraudulent accounts created by scammers can be created just as easily as legitimate ones, going undetected due to the lack of verification required. It can also lead to investor overconfidence, the vast amount of advice online can present investors with the illusion of a comprehensive understanding, especially if new to the market, regardless of the relevance and validity of the advice. Overconfidence tends to lead to an underestimation of risks and increases such investors’ chances of poor investment choices or susceptibility to scams.

One of the barriers to crypto investing for many account holders is this lack of financial literacy. The majority of investors do not have access to financial advisors due to a lack of initial funds. Financial institutions must adopt educational tools and resources; by providing educational content such as videos, articles, webinars, or personalized insights within the digital investing platform, financial institutions can differentiate their offering from fintechs.

This positions the institution as a trusted advisor that helps account holders build their financial knowledge and confidence.

What can financial institutions do to safeguard their account holders?

By offering in-house financial education resources, whether through blogs, dedicated advisors, or easy-to-understand publications, institutions will fill this gap, positioning themselves as trusted, go-to sources of information. If institutions implement these measures early, they could take advantage of a huge market of people wary of crypto investment and looking for accountability behind the advice.

Additionally, offering personalized advice through robo-advisors or in-house experts will support those seeking guidance from informal sources such as independent advisors or the internet. Accessible and reliable financial education can strengthen customer relationships, improve engagement, and lead to more account holders investing and managing their finances directly within an institution’s ecosystem.

In the United States, it’s common for financial institutions to require a minimum of $25,000 to access a financial advisor. However, the majority of people interested in investing don’t meet this threshold, creating a gap where many potential investors are left without guidance, potentially leading them to third-party apps or independent influencers with often no financial barrier to accessing information.

Financial institutions have an opportunity to bridge this gap by offering accessible, low-barrier investment options. With the addition of digital investing solutions, educational resources, and entry-level investment tools, individuals with smaller portfolios will be empowered to start investing in crypto confidently. Account holders also gain the financial education to make safe crypto investment decisions and avoid unnecessary losses.

Kian Sarreshteh

Kian Sarreshteh has consulted with numerous blockchain, cryptocurrency, and fintech-focused companies across the United States since 2015. In 2015, he founded an IT recruiting and consulting company focused on financial technology and transformed the company into a multi-million dollar operation. Also, in 2015, he acquired a 35-year-old background check company that focused on regulated industries, including financial services. He led new product development, including the development of a Blockchain database to store background check records. Prior to his departure, Kian was instrumental in the company’s growth, with a 50% increase in revenue. In 2020, Kian co-founded CryptoFi, Inc.— now known as InvestiFi.

Max Burwick has called Pump.fun “the evolution of MLM scams,” accusing it of exploiting investors—and now his law firm is preparing a lawsuit.

On Jan. 15, Max Burwick—founder and Partner at Burwick Law—voiced strong criticism against platforms like Pump.fun as examples of what he calls “the ultimate evolution of multi-level marketing scams, preying on human desperation and the digital attention economy.” 

He critiqued that these projects leverage the “digital attention economy” to reel people in—especially younger audiences or those facing economic hardship—and ensnare them in a cycle designed to enrich early insiders.

Pump.fun, according to Burwick, allegedly frames “exit liquidity” as a game—making light of the very real financial losses inflicted on late entrants.

Pump.fun is a decentralized platform on the Solana (SOL) blockchain that simplifies the process of creating and trading meme coins, aiming to make participation in the crypto market accessible to non-technical users.

Burwick didn’t hold back in taking shots at the platform, saying they were the antithesis of blockchain innovation. He says platforms like Pump.fun don’t embody the fundamental principles of transparency, fairness, and empowerment that crypto was originally built on.

Burwick reiterated that meme coins aren’t innovative in and of themselves but prey on addiction and youth. His comments come as Burwick Law picks up the gauntlet in a legal case involving Pump.fun, demanding accountability in company conduct within the crypto ecosystem. 

Pump.fun faces legal action

On Jan. 15, Burwick Law said that it has been working with individuals who lost considerable amounts of money to meme coins via rug pulls and misleading promises linked to the platform. The law firm has now made a website to help clients who lost millions of dollars in the fiasco. 

Burwick Law claimed Pump.fun hosted obscene and corrosive content displaying violence, racism, and antisocial behaviors. They attacked the anonymous creators of the platform and others in the meme coin ecosystem for luring day-to-day investors with false promises.

As of Jan. 15, the platform’s total revenue surpassed $422 million, with nearly $25 million generated in the last seven days alone, according to Dune Analytics.

Burwick Law contends that the meme coin launchpad offers little actual support for its users and instead facilitates rug pulls, where developers walk away with investor funds after raising capital. “As the system grows, early adopters cash out by dumping their holdings on later participants, effectively stealing from them,” Burwick remarked.

In November 2024, the platform suffered major backlash due to its live streaming feature. A user threatened to harm himself to promote their meme coin during a live broadcast, causing panic in the entire crypto community. While Pump.fun did acknowledge the damage done and changed its moderation policies, there were no talks about losses that investors suffered.

According to an analysis by Pump.fun wallet examiner Adam Tehc, only 0.4% of the 14 million wallets interacting with Pump.fun reported profits exceeding $10,000—highlighting the extent to which most users have suffered losses.

Max Burwick is not the only one who has a strong stance against the platform. On Jan. 15, Cosmo Jiang of Pantera Capital told Wire “that majority of meme coins launched through Pump.fun wind up nearly worthless”, sharing a sentiment similar to Burwick.