A missing cryptoqueen considered to be the ‘world’s most wanted woman’ now has a £4,000,000 bounty on her head.
Bulgarian-born Ruja Ignatova, who has German citizenship, is accused of running one of the biggest cryptocurrency scams of all time, defrauding investors out of $4bn (£3.3bn) by selling a fake cryptocoin called OneCoin in 2014.
The 43-year-old disappeared without a trace in 2017, and has been on the FBI’s Most Wanted List since 2022.
FBI officials previously offered a bounty of $100,000 for information on the woman believed to have masterminded ‘one of the largest global fraud schemes in history’, but have since upped the payout to $5,000,000.
‘Ignatova is believed to travel with armed guards and/or associates,’ reads her FBI most wanted poster. ‘Ignatova may have had plastic surgery or otherwise altered her appearance’.
The FBI believes she may be using a German passport to travel to countries such as the UAE, Russia, Greece and Eastern Europe.
But there is also speculation she may have been murdered by the Bulgarian mafia, who are suspected of masterminding the OneCoin scheme.
Ignatova was last seen boarding a Ryanair flight from Sofia to Athens on 25 October 2017, after fleeing a flat belonging to her American boyfriend upon learning he was cooperating with the FBI.
In 2018, documents found in the possession of a murdered Bulgarian police official suggested Igantova may have been murdered onboard a mafia bosses private yacht who she was paying for protection.
The documents suggested Ignatova’s body was dismembered and dumped in the Ionian Sea, although the source was said to be heavily intoxicated when they made the claims, and the FBI is still searching under the assumption she is alive.
When she was first added to the most-wanted list, the FBI said she had escaped with a ‘tremendous amount of cash- enough to buy a lot of friends’.
BBC journalist Jamie Bartlett, whose podcast The Missing Cryptoqueen brought global attention to her story, believes the reward increase is aimed at people possibly still protecting her.
‘The FBI are now refocusing their efforts on the people around Dr Ruja, trying to tempt her close associates to get in touch.
‘$100,000 wouldn’t persuade a junior member of a crime syndicate or a personal bodyguard to call the FBI’s hotline – it’s far too risky. But $5m just might.
‘We will probably know within a few weeks if it’s worked.’
While Ignatova remains at large, other members of the OneCoin scam have since been apprehended.
OneCoin’s co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood and former head of legal and compliance, Irina Dilkinska, both pleaded guilty to federal charges of wire fraud and money laundering in connection to the scam in December 2022.
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