Good day everybody,
Welcome to CryptoGod-1's blog on all things crypto. In this post I will be looking at a recent investigation by the BBC which believes that the founder of "One Coin" and also known as the 'Crypto Queen' has been murdered.
Ruja Ignatove aka 'Crypto Queen'
It is believed the only women on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list, a miss Ruja Ignatova, may have been murdered by a Bulgarian drug lord who had been hired as her bodyguard. This comes from the BBC's investigation team following their publishing of new evidence on the alleged murder of the crypto fraudster. The investigation took place over the past year between BBC World Service’s Eye Investigations and Panorama, who were investigating the whereabouts of the fraudster.
Ruja Ignatova, known as the 'Crypto Queen,' is the infamous Bulgarian woman who was involved in the promotion of the cryptocurrency dubbed ‘OneCoin’ back in 2014. During her time promoting the coin she managed to convince millions of people to invest in the cryptocurrency after her promise of multi-fold returns. Ignatova then fled with the investors money which had a value of $4.5 billion at the time.
FBI Most Wanted List
Ignatova and the 'One Coin' scam garnered global attention, with serval key personnel arrested from their links to the Ponzi scheme. The latest arrest was that of Willian Morro, an accomplice in the OneCoin scam who pled guilty on one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in connection with the cryptocurrency.
Ruja Ignatova was born in Bulgaria and raised in Germany before she graduated from Oxford University in the United Kingdom. She pursued a successful career in finance prior to the launch of 'One Coin' in 2014. As part of the lure of 'One Coin' Ruja promised returns even better than those seen by early Bitcoin investors.
Back in 2017 investigators from the United Kingdom and Germany began to close in on Dr. Ignatova, and in October of that year she took an early morning Ryanair flight from Sofia to Athens and was never seen or heard from again. A story emerged that Ruja Ignatova hired a Bulgarian drug kingpin known as Hristoforos Nikos Amanatidis, commonly known as Taki, to keep her safe during her escape. However, she was allegedly murdered by the same bodyguard, who was being paid around €100,000 a month for her protection, but reports of sightings of Dr. Ruja Ignatova continue to emerge.
Interpol
A former Bulgarian deputy minister, Ivan Hristanov, noted to the BBC:
“When we talk about Taki, he’s the head of the mafia in Bulgaria. He’s extremely powerful. Taki is the ghost. You’ll never see him. You only hear about him. He’s talking to you through other people. If you don’t listen, you just disappear from earth. The only person who can protect her [Ignatova] from all those investigations, including from foreign agencies – it was Taki.”
Reports have emerged that Taki is currently living in Dubai in one one of Ignatova’s luxury penthouses. Her bank account in that nation received millions of dollars from the fraud connected with 'One Coin.' Back in his native Bulgaria Taki has an almost mythical status, similar to that of El Chapo or Pablo Escobar. He is widely suspected of being the head of a Bulgarian organised crime organisation and a prolific drug smuggler. Although there have never been any successful prosecutions against him, both Taki and his associates have been investigated there for armed robbery, drug smuggling and murder. While it is unconfirmed, many believe both Taki and Ignatova had a close personal relationship, and that he was the godfather to her daughter.
Europol documents also note a complex deal to sell a plot of land, on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, that links one of Ms Ignatova’s companies to Taki’s wife. While Taki was once on Interpol's Red Notice list, it was a Bulgarian investigative journalist by the name of Dimitar Stoyanov who first broke the news of Ignatova’s murder story in 2022 at bird.bg news outlet.
Back in 2022 Stoyanov and his colleagues received a police document which had been found at the home of a murdered Bulgarian police officer. Within the document it is noted that Taki’s brother-in-law drunkenly stated that Ms Ignatova had been murdered on Taki’s orders in late 2018 while her body had been dismembered and dumped off a yacht in the Ionian Sea, off the west coast of Greece. While it is unconfirmed, Stoyanov noted this account is “very, very possible”. Taki has never been arrested over claims he had Ignatova murdered and her body was never found. Investigators say they therefore don’t have enough evidence to prosecute him.
Another associate to Ms Ignatova who has since disappeared, one Frank Schneider, worked as both a spy and advisor to the CryptoQueen and he informed the BBC that his old boss was working with “crooks” and “gangsters”. A few months after he spoke to the BBC he disappeared, but during his interview with the BBC at his home in France Schneider was under house arrest and awaiting extradition to the US in connection to the OneCoin scam. He did not reveal any names, but he did state: “I'm not going to tell you who, because I have a family... This is real serious organised crime.”
Frank Schneider
Associates of Taki have taken the rationale that he wanted Ms Ignatova dead due to her being a liability. He wished to eliminate his links to the OneCoin fraud, and one associate called Krasimir Kamenov and known as Kuro, confirmed this after being captured in the Netherlands. He noted that he had overheard Taki discussing his criminal business in front of Ms Ignatova. When Kuro challenged Taki on whether he should be doing that, Taki had answered: “Don't worry, she's as good as dead.”
Kuro had also reportedly spoken to the CIA about Taki, and in May 2023 Kuro, along with his wife and two others who worked for him, were assinated in his Cape Town home. South African police are still looking for his killer, but Bulgarian former deputy minister Hristanov believes Kuro’s murder is linked to Taki. He noted to the BBC:
“Certain people had to be removed because they knew too much about Taki. It was kind of a public execution that looked more like a statement. Be careful who you deal with.”
Journalist Dimitar Stoyanov has also noted that he and his colleagues have faced death threats since they published allegations of Ms Ignatova’s murder. He had to temporarily leave Bulgaria, making it the fourth such time in his career. He does not have a clear motive for the alleged murder, but according to property records along with eyewitnesses, a number of Ms Ignatova’s Bulgarian properties are now being used by people connected to Taki.
Ms Ignatova’s Bulgarian Property
A former IRS investigator known as Richard Reinhardt thinks Ms Ignatova is likely to be dead, although he has no evidence to back this up, nor has he any evidence which would link her death to Taki. However, he noted it fits with how the drug cartel operates, stating:
“There's no honour among thieves… knowing how violent cartels are, if [Taki] thought she was a threat to him… he would probably take her out instead of getting caught.”
A podcast known as 'The Missing Cryptoqueen' have received various sightings and tip-offs about Ms Ignatova’s whereabouts since her alleged murder took place, which also included details of an unsuccessful police operation in Greece to catch her in 2022. Whether or not she is still alive and well remains unknown, and some believe the rumours of her death are just another move to throw everyone off the scent. She remains in the FBI's top 10 most wanted list to this day, and according to Reinhardt they are not just kept there for fun. Instead they would only remove someone once there was “definitive proof” they were dead. Given the allegations of how she was murdered, when it comes to Ruja Ignatova there may never be a definitive answer on her status as alive or dead. For now, the missing Cryptoqueen remains a hunted woman.
Have a great day.
Peace. CryptoGod-1.
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