{"id":752696,"date":"2019-11-26T23:57:40","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T23:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2019\/11\/26\/cryptoqueen-how-this-woman-scammed-the-world-then-vanished\/"},"modified":"2019-11-26T23:57:40","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T23:57:40","slug":"cryptoqueen-how-this-woman-scammed-the-world-then-vanished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/11\/26\/cryptoqueen-how-this-woman-scammed-the-world-then-vanished\/","title":{"rendered":"Cryptoqueen: How this woman scammed the world, then vanished"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/8785187668580_9373923750801-Copy-696x392.jpg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"8785187668580_9373923750801 (Copy)\"\/><\/div>\n<p>Ruja Ignatova called herself the Cryptoqueen. She told people she had invented a cryptocurrency to rival Bitcoin, and persuaded them to invest billions. Then, two years ago, she disappeared. Jamie Bartlett spent months investigating how she did it for\u00a0the Missing Cryptoqueen podcast, and trying to figure out where she\u2019s hiding.<\/p>\n<p>In early June 2016 a 36-year-old businesswoman called Dr Ruja Ignatova walked on stage at Wembley Arena in front of thousands of adoring fans. She was dressed, as usual, in an expensive ballgown, wearing long diamond earrings and bright red lipstick.<\/p>\n<p>She told the cheering crowd that OneCoin was on course to become the world\u2019s biggest cryptocurrency \u201cfor everyone to make payments everywhere\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781589_untitled-35_976.jpg\" alt=\"Dr Ruja speaking at Wembley\"\/><\/figure>\n<h5>Dr Ruja speaking at the Wembley Arena<\/h5>\n<p>Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency and is still the biggest and best-known \u2013 its rise in value from a few cents to hundreds of dollars per coin by mid-2016 had given rise to a frenzy of excitement among investors. Cryptocurrency as an idea was just entering the mainstream. Lots of people were looking to get involved in this strange new opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>OneCoin, Dr Ruja told the Wembley audience, was the \u201cBitcoin Killer\u201d. \u201cIn two years, nobody will speak about Bitcoin any more!\u201d she shouted.<\/p>\n<p>All over the world, people were already investing their savings into OneCoin, hoping to be part of this new revolution. Documents leaked to the BBC show that British people spent almost \u20ac30m on OneCoin in the first six months of 2016, \u20ac2m of it in a single week \u2013 and the rate of investment could have increased after the Wembley extravaganza. Between August 2014 and March 2017 more than \u20ac4bn was invested in dozens of countries. From Pakistan to Brazil, from Hong Kong to Norway, from Canada to Yemen\u2026 even Palestine.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781502_one_coin_investments_640-nc.png\" alt=\"Graphic showing investment in OneCoin over time\"\/><\/figure>\n<figure><iframe width=\"336\" height=\"280\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>But there was something very important these investors didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n<p>To explain this, I need first to explain briefly how a cryptocurrency actually works. This is notoriously difficult \u2013 go online and you\u2019ll find hundreds of different descriptions, some of them utterly baffling to the non-specialist. But this is the first principle to grasp: money is only valuable because other people think it\u2019s valuable. Whether it\u2019s Bank of England notes and coins, shells, precious stones or matchsticks \u2013 all of which have historically been used as money \u2013 it only works when everyone trusts it.<\/p>\n<p>For a long time, people have tried to create a form of digital money independent of state-backed currencies. But they have always failed because no-one could trust them. They would always need someone in charge who could manipulate the supply, and forgery was too easy.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781586_shutterstock_976.jpg\" alt=\"Ruja Ignatova\"\/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109028083_1px_white_line-nc.png\" alt=\"Presentational white space\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>The reason so many people are excited by Bitcoin is that it solves that problem. It depends upon a special type of database called a blockchain, which is like a huge book \u2013 one that Bitcoin owners have independent but identical copies of. Every time a Bitcoin is sent from me to someone else, a record of that transaction goes into everyone\u2019s book. Nobody \u2013 not banks, not governments, or the person who invents it \u2013 is in charge or can change it. There is some very clever maths behind all this, but this means that Bitcoins can\u2019t be faked, they can\u2019t be hacked and can\u2019t be double-spent.<\/p>\n<p>(I tested this explanation on my mother, the family technophobe, and she told me I\u2019d failed to make it clear enough and should start again. So don\u2019t worry too much if you don\u2019t follow it either.) The key point is that these special blockchain databases are what make cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin work. For its fans this is a revolutionary new form of currency, with the potential to sideline the banks and national currencies, and provide banking for anyone with a mobile phone. And if you get in early, there\u2019s the chance to make a fortune.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781503_one_coin_revenue_640-nc.png\" alt=\"Graphic showing OneCoin's revenue over time\"\/><\/figure>\n<figure><iframe width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>Dr\u00a0 Ruja\u2019s genius was to take all of this and sell the idea to the masses.<\/p>\n<p>But there was something wrong. In early October 2016 \u2013 four months after Dr Ruja\u2019s London appearance \u2013 a blockchain expert called Bjorn Bjercke was called by a recruitment agent, with a curious job offer. A cryptocurrency start-up from Bulgaria was looking for a chief technical officer. Bjercke would get an apartment and a car \u2013 and an attractive annual salary of about \u00a3250,000.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was thinking: \u2018What is my job going to be? What are the things that I\u2019m going to have to do for this company?&#8217;\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd he said: \u2018Well, first of all, they need a blockchain. They don\u2019t have a blockchain today.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said: \u2018What? You told me it was a cryptocurrency company.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The agent replied that this was correct. It was a cryptocurrency company, and it had been running for a while \u2013 but it didn\u2019t have a blockchain. \u201cSo we need you to build a blockchain,\u201d he went on.<\/p>\n<figure><iframe width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s the name of the company?\u201d asked Bjercke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s OneCoin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He didn\u2019t take the job.<\/p>\n<h2>Jen McAdam\u2019s \u2018tycoon\u2019 package<\/h2>\n<p>One spring day a few months earlier, Jen McAdam received a message from a friend about an unmissable investment opportunity. Sitting at her computer, the Glaswegian clicked on a link and joined a OneCoin webinar.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781632_vderbyshire6.jpg\" alt=\"Jen McAdam on the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme\"\/><\/figure>\n<h5>Jen McAdam on the BBC\u2019s Victoria Derbyshire programme<\/h5>\n<p>Over the next hour or so she listened carefully to people talking enthusiastically about this exciting new cryptocurrency \u2013 how it could transform her fortunes. All of them were \u201cvery up-tempo, full of beans, full of passion\u201d, she remembers. \u201cYou are so lucky that you\u2019re seeing this webinar right now,\u201d she was told. \u201cYou\u2019re in at such an early stage and it\u2019s just going to go like Bitcoin. It\u2019s going to go bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The webinar hosts talked about Dr Ruja\u2019s glittering background: Oxford University, a PhD from Konstanz, a stint with the respected management consultancy, McKinsey and Company\u2026 A speech Dr Ruja had given at a conference hosted by The Economist magazine was shown \u2013 and that\u2019s what clinched it for McAdam. \u201cThat ticked a box\u2026 The power of the woman \u2013 well done! I felt proud of her.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781704_economist_summit_profile976.jpg\" alt=\"Ruja Ignatova at the Economist summit\"\/><\/figure>\n<h5>The video of Dr Ruja at the Economist conference was what clinched it for Jen McAdam<\/h5>\n<h5>By the time the webinar had finished she had decided to invest \u20ac1,000. It was easy: you purchased OneCoin tokens, and these then generated coins, which went into your account. One day soon, she was told, she would be able to turn these coins back into euros or pounds. It seemed like easy money. Maybe \u20ac1,000 wasn\u2019t enough? The promoters said it was the larger packages that were really life-changing. The smallest package cost \u20ac140, but they went all the way up to \u20ac118,000. One week later McAdam bought a \u201ctycoon\u201d package, for \u20ac5,000.<\/h5>\n<p>Before long, she had invested \u20ac10,000 of her own money \u2013 and persuaded friends and family to invest \u20ac250,000 of theirs. She watched excitedly on the OneCoin website as the value of her coins steadily rose. Before too long they had passed \u00a3100,000 \u2013 a 10-fold return. She started planning holidays and shopping trips.<\/p>\n<p>But towards the end of the year Jen McAdam was contacted by a stranger on the internet. He claimed to be a good Samaritan, someone who had studied OneCoin carefully and wanted to speak to people who had invested. Reluctantly, she agreed to a conversation on Skype. It turned out to be a shouting match, but it would send McAdam\u2019s life in a new direction.<\/p>\n<p>The stranger was Timothy Curry, a Bitcoin enthusiast and cryptocurrency advocate. He thought OneCoin would give cryptocurrencies a bad name, and he told McAdam bluntly that it was a scam \u2013 \u201cthe biggest scam in the [expletive] world\u201d. He said he could prove it, too. \u201cWell then prove it to me!\u201d she replied, sharply.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next several weeks, Curry sent a stream of information about how cryptocurrencies work: links, articles, YouTube videos. He introduced her to Bjorn Bjercke, the blockchain developer who said there was no blockchain.<\/p>\n<p>It took McAdam three months to go through it all, but questions were starting to form. She started asking the leaders of her OneCoin group if there was a blockchain. At first she was told it was something she didn\u2019t need to know, but when she persisted she finally got the truth in a voicemail in April 2017.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOK Jen\u2026 they don\u2019t want to disclose that kind of information, just in case something goes wrong where the blockchain is being held. And plus, as an application, it doesn\u2019t need a server behind it. So it\u2019s our blockchain technology, a SQL server with a database.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But by this stage, thanks to Curry and Bjercke, she knew that a standard SQL server database was no basis for a genuine cryptocurrency. The manager of the database could go in and change it at will.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought, \u2018What???\u2019 And literally my legs just went, and I fell on the floor,&#8217;\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>The inescapable conclusion was that those rising numbers on the OneCoin website were meaningless \u2013 they were just numbers typed into a computer by a OneCoin employee. Far from putting an end to their financial worries, she and her friends and family had thrown a quarter of a million euros away.<\/p>\n<h2>Dr Ruja disappears<\/h2>\n<p>Although Jen McAdam had now seen the light, few other OneCoin investors had. Dr Ruja was still travelling the world to sell her vision \u2013 hopping from Macau to Dubai to Singapore, filling out arenas, pulling in new investors. OneCoin was still growing fast, and Dr Ruja was starting to spend her new fortune: buying multi-million-dollar properties in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, and the Black Sea resort of Sozopol. In her downtime she would throw parties on her luxurious yacht The Davina. At one, in July 2017, the American pop star\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CryptoXpose\/status\/1179838529825849350\">Bebe Rexha performed a private set<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781456_davina.jpg\" alt=\"Jamie Bartlett and the Davina\"\/><\/figure>\n<h5>The Davina \u2013 and Jamie Bartlett<\/h5>\n<p>Despite the successful facade, trouble was brewing. The opening of a long-promised exchange that would allow OneCoin to be turned into cash kept being delayed \u2013 and investors were growing more and more concerned.<\/p>\n<p>This was to be resolved at a large gathering of European OneCoin promoters in Lisbon, Portugal, in October 2017.<\/p>\n<p>But when the day came, Dr Ruja \u2013 who was famously punctual \u2013 didn\u2019t show up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was on her way. Nobody knew why she wasn\u2019t there,\u201d recalls one delegate. Frantic calls and messages went unanswered. The head office in Sofia, where she was such an imposing presence, didn\u2019t know anything either. Dr Ruja had vanished. Some feared she\u2019d been killed or kidnapped by the banks, who \u2013 they\u2019d been told \u2013 had most to fear from the cryptocurrency revolution.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, she had gone underground. FBI records presented in court documents earlier this year indicate that on 25 October 2017, just two weeks after her Lisbon no-show, she boarded a Ryanair flight from Sofia to Athens. And then went completely off radar. That was the last time anyone saw or heard from Dr Ruja.<\/p>\n<h2>MLM\u2019s most successful product<\/h2>\n<p>Igor Alberts is wearing black-and-gold everything. Black-and-gold shoes, black-and-gold pleated suit, black-and-gold shirt, black-and-gold sunglasses, and he has a thick black-and-gold ring on. And every item of clothing is Dolce and Gabbana.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you look at my clothes, they are disciplined,\u201d he says. His wife, Andreea Cimbala, nods along, adding that if he wakes up and puts on pink underwear, he sticks to pink as he chooses his shirt, trousers and jacket.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781544_houseofdreams976.jpg\" alt=\"Igor Alberts and Andreea Cimbala outside their house\"\/><\/figure>\n<h5>Igor Alberts and Andreea Cimbala outside their house<\/h5>\n<p>They live in an enormous house in an affluent neighbourhood on the outskirts of Amsterdam. At the gated entrance to their mansion is a 10ft-high wrought iron gate with their names and the slogan \u201cWhat dreams may come\u201d. A Maserati and Aston Martin are parked outside.<\/p>\n<p>Alberts was brought up in a poor neighbourhood. Then he got into network marketing, or multi-level marketing (MLM) as it is often known, and started making money. Lots of money. He claims he has made \u20ac100m over the last 30 years.<\/p>\n<p>Here is how multi-level marketing works.<\/p>\n<p>I pay \u00a3100 to start selling vitamin tablets directly to people. I sell a box to my friends, Georgia and Phil, and make a small cut. But then I recruit Georgia and Phil to start selling too, and I make a cut on their sales as well. They are now in what\u2019s called my downline. Phil and Georgia both recruit two people, and then all four of them recruit two more, and so on. This mushrooms very rapidly \u2013 25 rounds of recruitment later and everyone in the UK would be selling vitamins. (And I, at the top, would be making a cut on all the sales.)<\/p>\n<p>MLM is not illegal. Big companies like Amway and Herbalife use these techniques. But it is controversial, because usually only a small number of people make all the money. It\u2019s also notorious for exaggerated promises of high earnings and tough sales targets. When there is nothing of value to sell, though, and all the money is made by recruiting other people, it is illegal and goes by another name: a pyramid scheme.<\/p>\n<p>In May 2015, already a very successful MLM seller, Igor Alberts was invited to a OneCoin event in Dubai, where he met lots of people, all apparently making fortunes with this new currency. Dr Ruja herself made a powerful impression too, with her \u201cprincess\u2019s dresses\u201d and her vision of a financial revolution. Igor returned with a new mission \u2013 and gave new instructions to all the salespeople in his downline: stop whatever you\u2019re doing, and start selling OneCoin. \u201cWe gathered the teams together and we started to work like crazy,\u201d he says. \u201cWe made in our first month almost \u20ac90,000 out of nothing. Bang!\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781640_igor_andreea976.jpg\" alt=\"Andreea Cimbala and Igor Alberts\"\/><\/figure>\n<h5>Andreea Cimbala and Igor Alberts<\/h5>\n<p>Dr Ruja\u2019s genius was to recognise that established MLM sellers with huge downlines were the perfect vehicle to market her fake coin \u2013 a plan the FBI says she privately referred to as \u201cthe bitch of Wall Street, meets MLM\u201d. This was the secret of OneCoin\u2019s success. It wasn\u2019t just a fake cryptocurrency, it was an old-fashioned pyramid scheme, with the fake coin as its \u201cproduct\u201d. No wonder it spread like wildfire.<\/p>\n<p>Fairly soon Igor Alberts was making more than \u20ac1m a month from OneCoin, which quickly became the biggest product in network marketing. \u201cNo other company even came close,\u201d Alberts says.<\/p>\n<p>Sixty per cent of the income Igor Alberts and Andreea Cimbala made from OneCoin (in the end, more than \u20ac2m per month) was paid in cash, the rest in OneCoin. But they used some of this cash to buy\u00a0<em>more<\/em>\u00a0OneCoin. They, like almost everyone else involved, were convinced they were earning a fortune.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did the calculation how many coins we needed to become the richest person on the planet,\u201d Igor says. \u201cI said to Andreea, \u2018We need to build it up to 100 million coins, because when this coin goes to \u20ac100 and we have 100 million, we are richer than Bill Gates.\u2019 It\u2019s mathematic. It\u2019s easy as that.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781639_igor_andreea_75a75622-3.jpg\" alt=\"Andreea Cimbala and Igor Alberts\"\/><\/figure>\n<h5>Andreea Cimbala and Igor Alberts<\/h5>\n<p>The nature of MLM networks \u2013 where people often recruit others who are close to them \u2013 creates a blurred sense of responsibility. Blame is not easy to apportion. And if sellers have invested their own money, they are victims too.<\/p>\n<p>After Dr Ruja\u2019s non-appearance in Lisbon, a point came when Igor Alberts, like Jen McAdam, asked to see evidence of the blockchain. He didn\u2019t get it, and in December 2017 he quit.<\/p>\n<p>I ask if he felt guilty, for having sold so many people a coin that didn\u2019t exist, and for having made so much money in the process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt responsibility. Not guilt,\u201d he replies. \u201cYou can never be blamed for believing in something. I had no clue that it could be false. I didn\u2019t even know what is a blockchain\u2026 What doubt can I have?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He points out that he spent millions buying OneCoin, possibly more than anyone else.<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, Jen McAdam says she bears a heavy burden of guilt. I ask her how much she earned from selling OneCoin and she says it was \u20ac3,000 \u2013 \u20ac1,800 of which she received in cash, and which she used to buy more OneCoin.<\/p>\n<p>She feels guilty towards those who she introduced to OneCoin, she says, but also towards her late father, a miner, who worked hard all his life in horrible conditions, and left her the money that she then gave away.<\/p>\n<h2>Following the money<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to know how much money has been put into OneCoin. Documents leaked to the BBC say \u20ac4bn between August 2014 and March 2017. I\u2019ve also been told by more than one person that it could be as much as \u20ac15bn.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a famous saying in journalism, \u201cFollow the money.\u201d So with Georgia Catt, producer of The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast, I went to see Oliver Bullough, an expert on what he calls Moneyland \u2013 the shadowy parallel world where criminals and the super-rich hide their wealth. The problem, he explains, is that following the money isn\u2019t as easy as it sounds, because criminals structure their companies and bank accounts in such a way that their assets seem to disappear. \u201cThey still exist\u201d, he says, in his garden near the village of Hay-on-Wye. \u201cYou can still use them to buy things, you can still use them to buy political influence and nice houses and yachts. But when it comes to someone trying to find them \u2013 whether that\u2019s a journalist or a police officer \u2013 they are invisible.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781695_cryptography_976.jpg\" alt=\"A page on the OneCoin website\"\/><\/figure>\n<h5>A page on the OneCoin website<\/h5>\n<p>It\u2019s no surprise, then, that OneCoin\u2019s corporate structure is incredibly complicated. Here\u2019s an example: Ruja bought a very large property in central Sofia. Technically it was owned by a company called One Property. One Property was owned by another company called Risk Ltd. Risk Ltd was owned by Ruja, but was then transferred to some unnamed Panamanians, but it was still managed by another company called Peragon. And Peragon was owned by another company called Artefix, which was owned by Ruja\u2019s mother, Veska. And then in 2017, the ownership of Artefix was sold to an unknown man in his 20s.<\/p>\n<p>Oliver describes this kind of dizzying arrangement as \u201cimprobably standard\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>For several months, a French journalist called Maxime Grimbert tried to unpick OneCoin\u2019s corporate workings, collecting as many company names and bank account details as he could. I show his results to Bullough, who immediately notices how many British companies there are. \u201cBritish companies are the companies of choice,\u201d he comments. \u201cThey\u2019re very easy to set up and they look legitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781698_quote_shell-nc.jpg\" alt=\"Quotebox: That's illegal... That is an anonymous shell company\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>He takes the first one on the list and looks it up on the Companies House website. Everything is meant to be transparent \u2013 the website contains the details of every company in the UK. It\u2019s thought to be a key anti-corruption tool. \u201cWe are very proud of this in this country,\u201d he says. \u201cThe problem is that when you create this company, no-one checks any of the information provided.\u201d He clicks to see the company\u2019s filing history, but where you should see company accounts, there is nothing. \u201cThis is classic,\u201d he exclaims. \u201cLook, nothing has happened. They have filed no financial information at all.\u201d Then he tries checking the company\u2019s owners. The UK began to insist recently that companies must enter the name of the person with \u201csignificant control\u201d \u2013 the real owner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is supposed to mean that you can no longer use a British company to hide behind,\u201d he says, as he scrolls down the page. \u201cOh, hey presto, they haven\u2019t filed a person with significant control. That\u2019s illegal\u2026 That is an anonymous shell company, as anonymous as anything that you can buy anywhere in the Seychelles or Nevis or the Marshall Islands or Vanuatu.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So much for following the money. In an interconnected global economy, assets can simply vanish, and you end up chasing shadows.<\/p>\n<p>When you\u2019re dealing with a scam worth billions of euros, it\u2019s not unusual for shadowy groups to get involved. Several of the people Georgia and I interviewed spoke darkly about mysterious people and connections they didn\u2019t want to name.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you talk about the amount of money that\u2019s been put into OneCoin of course there\u2019s people out there who are pissed off and would do anything to shut anyone like me up,\u201d says Bjorn Bjercke, the blockchain expert who discovered there was no blockchain, and started talking about it publicly.<\/p>\n<p>He tells me he\u2019s received death threats as a result of speaking out. \u201cIf I knew what I would have to go through, I would have never blown the whistle. I would have just turned my back and walked away,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781550_nrk_bjercke976.jpg\" alt=\"Bjorn Bjercke on Norwegian television\"\/><\/figure>\n<h5>Bjorn Bjercke on Norwegian television<\/h5>\n<p>When I ask him who might be behind the threats, he won\u2019t elaborate. \u201cI can\u2019t discuss that. It starts to get very very very scary, very very very fast.\u201d According to Bjercke, Dr Ruja never expected OneCoin to grow so big. People involved at the early stages have told him it was never supposed to be a billion-dollar scam. She tried to close it down, he says, but the dark forces wouldn\u2019t let her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce OneCoin was running above 10 million, 20 million, 30 million, something happened where she was unable to stop it,\u201d Bjercke says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think she was so scared in the fall of 2017 that she decided to skip.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Igor Alberts, the MLM seller, also talks about the involvement of \u201cvery influential people\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>When I ask for more details, he replies: \u201cNo, I cannot tell that because I don\u2019t want to take that risk with our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781635_konstantin976.jpg\" alt=\"Konstantin Ignatov\"\/><\/figure>\n<h5>Konstantin Ignatov<\/h5>\n<p>It\u2019s not clear who Bjorn and Igor are talking about, or whether they are even talking about the same people, but the US Department of Justice claims to have evidence of a link between Dr Ruja\u2019s brother, Konstantin Ignatov \u2013 who took over the running of OneCoin when Ruja disappeared \u2013 and \u201csignificant players in Eastern European organised crime\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2>Inside \u2018the family\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>On 6 March 2019 Konstantin Ignatov was at Los Angeles International airport, waiting to fly back to Bulgaria after some OneCoin meetings in the US. Just as he was boarding his flight home, he was pounced on by FBI agents, arrested ,and charged with fraud in connection with OneCoin. Around the same time, the US authorities charged Dr Ruja in absentia for wire fraud, security fraud and money laundering.<\/p>\n<p>Amazingly, even after this, OneCoin continued to function \u2013 and people continued to invest in it. When Georgia and I visited Sofia a month later, Dr Ruja\u2019s personal mansion appeared to be locked up and empty, but the OneCoin office gave every appearance of being a busy workplace.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781547_onecoin_alamy976.jpg\" alt=\"Igor Alberts and Andreea Cimbala outside their house\"\/><\/figure>\n<h5>OneCoin headquarters in Sofia, Bulgaria<\/h5>\n<p>Why have so many people continued to believe in OneCoin, despite all the evidence?<\/p>\n<p>Investors often told us that what drew them in initially was the fear that they would miss out on the next big thing. They\u2019d read, with envy, the stories of people striking gold with Bitcoin and thought OneCoin was a second chance. Many were struck by the personality and persuasiveness of the \u201cvisionary\u201d Dr Ruja. Investors might not have understood the technology, but they could see her talking to huge audiences, or at the Economist conference. They were shown photographs of her numerous degrees, and copies of Forbes magazine with her portrait on the front cover.<\/p>\n<p>The degrees are genuine. The Forbes cover isn\u2019t: it was actually an inside cover \u2013 a paid-for advertisement \u2013 from Forbes Bulgaria, but once the real cover was ripped off, it looked impressive.<\/p>\n<p>But it seems it\u2019s not just the promise of riches that keeps people believing. After Jen McAdam invested into OneCoin she was constantly told she was part of the OneCoin \u201cfamily\u201d. She was entered into a Whatsapp group, with its own \u201cleader\u201d who disseminated information from the headquarters in Sofia. And McAdam\u2019s leader prepared her carefully for conversations with OneCoin sceptics. \u201cYou\u2019re told not to believe anything from the \u2018outside world\u2019,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThat\u2019s what they call it. \u2018Haters\u2019 \u2013 Bitcoiners are \u2018haters\u2019. Even Google \u2013 \u2018Don\u2019t listen to Google!&#8217;\u201d Any criticism or awkward questions were actively discouraged. \u201cIf you have any negativity you should not be in this group,\u201d she was told.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781701_quote_prophecy-nc.jpg\" alt=\"Quotebox: When prophecy fails, they believe more strongly\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Prof\u00a0Eileen Barker of the London School of Economics, who has spent years studying groups like the Moonies and Scientologists, says there are similarities between OneCoin and messianic millennium cults, where people believe they are part of something big that is going to change the world \u2013 and no matter what the evidence, once they\u2019ve signed up, it\u2019s very hard for them to admit they are wrong.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen prophecy fails they believe more strongly,\u201d she says. \u201cParticularly if you have invested something, not only money, but belief, reputation, intelligence. You think, \u2018Wait a bit longer.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Money might push people to invest in the first place, but the sense of belonging, of doing something, of achieving something, is why they stay, Barker says. \u201cAnd in that sense it\u2019s cultic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an ideal world, regulators would take action to protect consumers from scams like OneCoin. But the authorities all over the world have been slow to react, partly because the whole area of cryptocurrencies is relatively new.<\/p>\n<p>The UK\u2019s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is responsible for regulating financial markets in the UK, issued a warning on its website only in September 2016. \u201cWe believe consumers should be wary of dealing with OneCoin,\u201d it said. \u201cWe are concerned about the potential risk this poses to UK consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781707_quote_scammers-nc.jpg\" alt=\"Quotebox: It's a green light for the OneCoin scammers to continue\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Less than a year later, the warning was removed from the website. The FCA said it had been up for long enough, but OneCoin promoters presented this as proof that the UK authorities considered OneCoin a legitimate investment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s the answer, right from the horse\u2019s mouth, it\u2019s official,\u201d said one promoter from Alberta, Canada, in a video posted online. \u201cIf they still thought we were a fraudulent company, then guess what, that warning\u2019s not removed. Game over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Several OneCoin events took place in the UK after the FCA took down the warning, and money continued to be invested. The FCA did not respond to the BBC\u2019s request to comment.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that OneCoin was operating internationally also created difficulties for the authorities. In August this year, the City of London police ended a two-year investigation into OneCoin. \u201cThe companies and individuals behind OneCoin are based outside UK jurisdiction,\u201d it said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been unable to identify UK-based assets, which could be used to compensate UK investors.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781802_shutterstock_editorial_5622.jpg\" alt=\"Ruja Ignatova\"\/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109028083_1px_white_line-nc.png\" alt=\"Presentational white space\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Such explanations don\u2019t offer much comfort to those affected. \u201cI\u2019m devastated for all the UK victims,\u201d Jen McAdam told me, when she heard the news. She now runs Whatsapp support groups for OneCoin investors who realise they have been swindled. \u201cWhere\u2019s the support? Where\u2019s the help? More folk are going to promote this. It\u2019s a green light for the OneCoin scammers to continue and extort more money from innocent people in the UK and nothing has been done about it. They don\u2019t care!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The City of London Police told the BBC: \u201cThere was insufficient evidence to support criminal proceedings against individuals based in the UK, though the force has never specified that there had been no concerns surrounding OneCoin. The force has provided assistance to foreign law enforcement partners in respect of their investigations concerning OneCoin personnel and will continue to do this. If you believe you have been a victim of fraud in relation to OneCoin or you suspect someone of actively marketing OneCoin, please come forward and report it to Action Fraud online.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Until this week, however, the OneCoin head office remained open for business \u2013 and people were continuing to promote the currency.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Svrakata\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/07WlfO3g_normal.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Svrakata\"><strong>\u144eI\u1455KO\u14aa\u15e9Y \u1515TOY\u15e9\u144eO\u142f<\/strong>@Svrakata<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Svrakata\/status\/1197160014722600960\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Today doors are locked. No lights visible through the windows.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Svrakata\/status\/1197160014722600960\/photo\/1\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/EJ0qrYmWwAEEZr3\" alt=\"View image on Twitter\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/like?tweet_id=1197160014722600960\">36<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Svrakata\/status\/1197160014722600960\">2:29 PM \u2013 Nov 20, 2019<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/support.twitter.com\/articles\/20175256\">Twitter Ads info and privacy<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Svrakata\">See \u144eI\u1455KO\u14aa\u15e9Y \u1515TOY\u15e9\u144eO\u142f\u2019s other Tweets<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>A Ugandan tragedy<\/h2>\n<p>In the Ntangamo region of Uganda, not far from Rwandan border, most people make their living growing bananas, or sometimes cassava, sweet potato, beans or groundnut. In 2016 it was here that 22-year-old Daniel Lienhardt came as he was scraping together the 700,000 Ugandan shillings ($250) he needed to buy a OneCoin starter package.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781511_bananas_976.jpg\" alt=\"Villagers in Daniel's village in the Ntangamo region\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>He already had 400,000 shillings in savings, and to raise the rest he returned from the capital, Kampala, to his family home, took three goats raised by his younger brothers, and sold them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was no other way,\u201d he says ruefully.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel is one of thousands of Ugandans who\u2019ve bought into Dr Ruja\u2019s fake cryptocurrency \u2013 and the OneCoin financial documents leaked to the BBC reveal that as time went on, investors like him became increasingly important to OneCoin.<\/p>\n<p>In Europe, less money was invested in the first six months of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016. But in Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, it was the other way round. As the money started drying up in Europe, promoters turned more and more to countries like Uganda.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel took me and Georgia to meet Prudence, who first introduced him to OneCoin. They are still friends, even though both now realise it\u2019s a scam.<\/p>\n<p>Prudence is a nurse in a Kampala slum, who thought she could make more money selling OneCoin and set about recruiting new investors. A senior promoter gave her a nice car to impress customers, and instructed her to visit farmers when their crops were being harvested and they had money in their pocket.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781459_prudence976.jpg\" alt=\"Daniel and Prudence (centre) with Jamie (centre-right)\"\/><\/figure>\n<h5>Daniel, Prudence and Jamie with children in the poor area of Kampala where Prudence works as a nurse<\/h5>\n<p>People in villages trust people from the city, Prudence tells us. To buy the packages some sold their cattle, their land and even their houses \u2013 with disastrous consequences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome of their kids are at home sitting without going to school \u2013 some don\u2019t have anywhere to sleep. Some are running because they got loans from a bank. Some are hiding. Some are divorced.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If anyone asks Prudence when the investment is going to deliver the promised riches, she tells them to wait. She can\u2019t bring herself to tell them the truth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m somehow hiding myself. I don\u2019t want those people I introduced into OneCoin to see me moving around. They can easily kill me. They thought I ate their money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But though she has stopped recruiting, many others haven\u2019t, and there are still plenty of interested buyers, she says.<\/p>\n<p>One of the main OneCoin offices in Kampala is attached to a church. There are videos of the minister, known as Bishop Fred, leading the congregation in call and response. \u201cOne Life!\u201d he shouts. \u201cOne Coin!\u201d the congregations replies. Bishop Fred, we learned, is now one of the country\u2019s top promoters of OneCoin, though he says it\u2019s no longer promoted during church services.<\/p>\n<p>As in other countries, OneCoin has spread here through networks of friends and families. Together with Daniel, Georgia and I travel south to meet his mother. She lives in a concrete house with a tin roof \u2013 five small rooms, a small television and a cooking area. A towel covers the front door, and a few metres away is her land, where she grows her own food and sells anything left over at the local market.<\/p>\n<p>The family had saved about \u00a33,000 to buy a maize store so that Daniel\u2019s mother could stop spending every day in the fields. But when Daniel found out about OneCoin, it suddenly seemed like a much better alternative. His mother had doubts, but he persuaded her to put the money into OneCoin instead. She had no computer or smartphone, to do her own research.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781508_daniel_mother976.jpg\" alt=\"Daniel with his mother\"\/><\/figure>\n<h5>Daniel and his mother<\/h5>\n<p>She doesn\u2019t speak English either, so I\u2019m shocked to discover, as we sit and talk, that Daniel has never actually told his mother that the money is lost.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve never told her directly that it\u2019s not going to work \u2013 that there is no more money, there\u2019s no more hope,\u201d he tells me. \u201cI\u2019ve been telling her it\u2019s changing. They keep postponing this. That I don\u2019t know what they\u2019re thinking. Maybe it\u2019s just a delay. I haven\u2019t given her 100% full confirmation that it won\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I ask him why not. \u201cIt\u2019s hard. It\u2019s hard to say.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Daniel\u2019s mother then tells us that when she first saw me and Georgia, she assumed it was a good sign \u2013 that perhaps it meant that her money was going to arrive at last. She asks what news we have about OneCoin. Will she get her money back?<\/p>\n<p>I look at Daniel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe you can tell her\u2026 Maybe\u2026\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>He doesn\u2019t seem certain it\u2019s a good idea. Perhaps it would put him in an uncomfortable position. I don\u2019t want to be the person that breaks the news to Daniel\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n<p>Georgia suggests we tell Daniel\u2019s mother that we are journalists, and that we are investigating OneCoin because a lot of people aren\u2019t getting their money.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel translates, and his mother\u2019s reply comes back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you have your money and it\u2019s taken away from you, life becomes stressful,\u201d she says. \u201cYou\u2019ve been planning, planning for something. If it doesn\u2019t happen, life is hard.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Where are you, Dr Ruja?<\/h2>\n<p>When we started planning the Missing Cryptoqueen podcast in late 2018, no-one really had a clue what happened to Dr Ruja after her disappearance. It was only earlier this year that the US authorities revealed she\u2019d flown to Athens on 25 October 2017. And even then, the question remained, where had she gone next?<\/p>\n<p>There were rumours of course \u2013 lots of them. Igor Alberts, the MLM kingpin, said he\u2019d heard she has Russian and Ukrainian passports and travels back and forth between Russia and Dubai. It\u2019s also been suggested that there are powerful people who might protect her in her native Bulgaria \u2013 and that she could hide in plain sight because of plastic surgery that makes her unrecognisable. I\u2019ve even heard that she might be in London. Others told us she was dead \u2013 which does remain a possibility.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781726_quote_lifestyle-nc.jpg\" alt=\"Quotebox: What was her lifestyle - that's the most important thing of all\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>This is clearly a question for a professional, which is why Georgia and I went to see private investigator Alan McLean. Finding people is his speciality, and there is one thing above all he says we should focus on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat was her lifestyle? That\u2019s the most important thing of all,\u201d he says. \u201cGo back to her life before OneCoin. Find out who her friends were, what her lifestyle was like, her family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another tip he gives us is to find out where she has been on her yacht. We should try to get the tracker off it, he says, and he doesn\u2019t appear to be joking. I explain that this is probably beyond my abilities (apart from being illegal). Then he says I should check what yachts were bought in Athens around the time she arrived there from Sofia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn my opinion, for what it\u2019s worth, she\u2019s moving around the Mediterranean,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781729_profilepic2016_976.jpg\" alt=\"Dr Ruja was renowned for expensive dresses and red lipstick\"\/><\/figure>\n<h5>Dr Ruja was renowned for expensive dresses and red lipstick<\/h5>\n<p>A few weeks after our meeting Alan gets back in touch, with some amazing information. His colleagues \u2013 also private investigators \u2013 visited top-end restaurants in Athens armed with photos of Ruja, and in one of them several waiters claimed to clearly remember her dining there earlier this year. When Georgia and I called them ourselves to check, they confirmed it. So it seems Ruja is still alive, and is able to visit a European capital without fearing arrest.<\/p>\n<p>Another lead comes our way when we pay a visit to a bizarre OneCoin beauty pageant in Bucharest. It\u2019s as glitzy as you would expect. Men are drinking champagne from the bottle, everyone is eyeing us in a way that makes us feel very uncomfortable. We soak up the atmosphere, cheer the British contestant, and then leave. But later we hear that we might have been in the presence of Dr Ruja \u2013 that she was there, in the same room, right in front of our noses. Except now with plastic surgery, and so harder to spot.<\/p>\n<p>From either Greece or Romania Dr Ruja could be extradited to the US. If it\u2019s true she was in these countries earlier this year, she probably has a fake identity.<\/p>\n<p>Taking seriously Alan McLean\u2019s advice about studying Dr Ruja\u2019s life before OneCoin, Georgia and I turn to the internet, which fortunately never forgets anything.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781710_quote_spots-nc.jpg\" alt=\"Quotebox: Dr Ruja identified society's weak spots and exploited them\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Even the most obscure entry or innocuous comment on a forum is usually saved somewhere, and with enough digging can be found. You\u2019ve heard of Google, but there are several other search engines that specialise in this. So we start unearthing previous addresses, known friends, old phone numbers, anything that could help us.<\/p>\n<p>We already knew that Dr Ruja spent some of her childhood in Schramberg, southern Germany. We had also visited the town of Waltenhofen in Bavaria, not far away, where she and her father bought a steelworks around a decade ago, an episode that led to her being tried for fraud. (She received a fine and a suspended sentence in October 2016.) While in Waltenhofen, we learned that she had a German husband, a lawyer for the well-known firm, Linklaters.<\/p>\n<p>But we were still surprised when, during our internet searches, Frankfurt started appearing over and over again. It wasn\u2019t a place we\u2019d previously thought of looking.<\/p>\n<p>There were several old addresses in the Frankfurt area \u2013 ones she\u2019d posted in forums many years ago, or were associated somehow with old phone numbers of hers. Then we started looking at some old photos of Ruja, and spotted one friend who appeared with her all the way back to 2011. And that friend was visiting the richest neighbourhood in Frankfurt in summer this year. From a tiny fragment of a poster advertising a tennis tournament, an expert identified the park in which one photograph was taken.<\/p>\n<p>We also learned that Dr Ruja had a daughter in late 2016, and that she remained very close to her. The daughter, we were informed, might be in Frankfurt. This is also where Dr Ruja\u2019s husband \u2013 or perhaps ex-husband \u2013 lives and works.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781583_meetmylittledaughter2_976.jpg\" alt=\"Dr Ruja posted a video of herself with her baby on social media\"\/><\/figure>\n<h5>Dr Ruja posted a video of herself with her baby on social media<\/h5>\n<p>Armed with a microphone and several photographs of Dr Ruja, we headed off to Frankfurt and searched old addresses and gated neighbourhoods said to be the most expensive in Germany. A couple of people looked at the photographs and paused for a long time, raising our hopes \u2013 but then said they didn\u2019t recognise her. A postman thought he recognised the name, but couldn\u2019t be sure. We called the lawyer who is (or was) married to her, and he didn\u2019t want to talk.<\/p>\n<p>Did we get close to her? Could she really be hiding out in the heart of the EU? We don\u2019t know. Frankfurt probably isn\u2019t the only place she goes \u2013 it might be one of several places, including perhaps Dubai and Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Then a few days later we received a call from a trusted source we cannot identify. He told us we were right \u2013 Frankfurt is indeed where she spends much of her time. But we need to keep going, we needed to find the house. \u201cYou will find her,\u201d he said. \u201cYou must dig deeper.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She would have known that we were looking for her, he added, and she would have laughed at us.<\/p>\n<p>On 5 November 2019, the day after the final episode of The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast was released, Dr Ruja\u2019s brother, Konstantin Ignatov, appeared in court in New York, testifying for the government in a case against a lawyer accused of laundering $400m of the money OneCoin made in the US.<\/p>\n<p>In court it was revealed that Ignatov signed a plea deal on 4 October, in which he pleaded guilty to several fraud charges. A court reporter was there to hear his testimony, and according to his account of the proceedings Ignatov appears to have implied that his sister had duped him with the same line the organisation put out to its investors \u2013 that OneCoin critics were \u201chaters\u201d who could not be believed.<\/p>\n<p>She vanished, he said, because she was afraid that somebody close to her was going to give her up to the FBI. She had got hold of a \u201cbig passport\u201d, he said, and asked him to get her plane tickets to Vienna, then Athens.<\/p>\n<p>OneCoin has always denied wrongdoing. It told the BBC: \u201cOneCoin verifiably fulfils all criteria of the definition of a crypto-currency.\u201d It said the Missing Cryptoqueen podcast \u201cwill not present any truthful information and cannot be considered objective, nor unbiased\u201d. It added that the allegations made about it around the world were being challenged, stating: \u201cOur partners, our customers and our lawyers are fighting successfully against this action around the globe and we are sure that the vision of a new system on the basis of a \u2018financial revolution\u2019 will be established.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Svrakata\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/07WlfO3g_normal.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Svrakata\"><strong>\u144eI\u1455KO\u14aa\u15e9Y \u1515TOY\u15e9\u144eO\u142f<\/strong>@Svrakata<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Svrakata\/status\/1197494888457293824\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Some action at the OneCoin HQ at last. Doors opened. A small beaten down van parked in front and was filled with various office equipment and supplies. Didn\u2019t seem to be the contents of the famous 3rd floor cash room \ud83d\ude42 Looked as if the company is moving out, but who knows\u2026<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Svrakata\/status\/1197494888457293824\/photo\/1\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/EJ5YkFbW4AE_DKt\" alt=\"View image on Twitter\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Svrakata\/status\/1197494888457293824\/photo\/1\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/EJ5YkFbWoAcSub4\" alt=\"View image on Twitter\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Svrakata\/status\/1197494888457293824\/photo\/1\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/EJ5YkFWWsAAr0OW\" alt=\"View image on Twitter\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Svrakata\/status\/1197494888457293824\/photo\/1\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/EJ5YkFbWkAEptk1\" alt=\"View image on Twitter\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/like?tweet_id=1197494888457293824\">50<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Svrakata\/status\/1197494888457293824\">12:40 PM \u2013 Nov 21, 2019<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/support.twitter.com\/articles\/20175256\">Twitter Ads info and privacy<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Svrakata\/status\/1197494888457293824\">28 people are talking about this<\/a><\/p>\n<p>OneCoin was a familiar scam with a digital twist \u2013 a new and hugely successful take on the old pyramid scheme.<\/p>\n<p>But to me it symbolises something else too.<\/p>\n<p>It represents the dark side of rapid technological change \u2013 the way that every new technology creates amazing new opportunities and possibilities for people who understand it, but also the chance to exploit the people who don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/_109781723_untitled-5_976.jpg\" alt=\"Dr Ruja comes on stage at Wembley to the song This Girl Is On Fire\"\/><\/figure>\n<h5>Dr Ruja comes on stage at Wembley to the song This Girl Is On Fire<\/h5>\n<p>Dr Ruja identified several of society\u2019s weak spots and exploited them. She knew there would be enough people either desperate enough, or greedy enough, or confused enough to take a bet on OneCoin. She understood that truth and lies are getting harder to tell apart when there is so much contradictory information online. She spotted that society\u2019s defence against OneCoin \u2013 the law-makers, the police, and also us in the media would struggle to understand what was happening.<\/p>\n<p>And, most frustratingly of all, she correctly guessed that by the time we realised it, she\u2019d be gone, along with the money.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ruja Ignatova called herself the Cryptoqueen. She told people she had invented a cryptocurrency to rival Bitcoin, and persuaded them to invest billions. Then, two years ago, she disappeared. Jamie Bartlett spent months investigating how she did it for\u00a0the Missing Cryptoqueen podcast, and trying to figure out where she\u2019s hiding. In early June 2016 a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":752697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-752696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cryptoqueen: How this woman scammed the world, then vanished - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/11\/26\/cryptoqueen-how-this-woman-scammed-the-world-then-vanished\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Cryptoqueen: How this woman scammed the world, then vanished - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Ruja Ignatova called herself the Cryptoqueen. She told people she had invented a cryptocurrency to rival Bitcoin, and persuaded them to invest billions. Then, two years ago, she disappeared. Jamie Bartlett spent months investigating how she did it for\u00a0the Missing Cryptoqueen podcast, and trying to figure out where she\u2019s hiding. In early June 2016 a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/8785187668580_9373923750801-Copy.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ghana News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"36 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/26\\\/cryptoqueen-how-this-woman-scammed-the-world-then-vanished\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/26\\\/cryptoqueen-how-this-woman-scammed-the-world-then-vanished\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ghana News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/53d06a757a4242f113d200e3c290c036\"},\"headline\":\"Cryptoqueen: How this woman scammed the world, then vanished\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-26T23:57:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/26\\\/cryptoqueen-how-this-woman-scammed-the-world-then-vanished\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":7151,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/26\\\/cryptoqueen-how-this-woman-scammed-the-world-then-vanished\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/8785187668580_9373923750801-Copy.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/26\\\/cryptoqueen-how-this-woman-scammed-the-world-then-vanished\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/26\\\/cryptoqueen-how-this-woman-scammed-the-world-then-vanished\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2019\\\/11\\\/26\\\/cryptoqueen-how-this-woman-scammed-the-world-then-vanished\\\/\",\"name\":\"Cryptoqueen: How this woman scammed the world, then vanished - 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