The FBI put a $5 million bounty on the 'Cryptoqueen' last year but still hasn't found her, so take your pick: Russia, South Africa, or murdered on a yacht in 2018

In July 2022 Ruja Ignatova, the self-styled 'Cryptoqueen' behind a pyramid scheme called OneCoin, was placed on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted list. Accused of defrauding investors of an amount estimated at between $3.6 to 4.5 billion, the Bulgarian-born Ignatova disappeared in 2017. In June last year came a new development: The FBI increased the existing reward of $250,000 to a whopping $5 million for any information that leads to her arrest.

The question is why and, according to one of those who've spent the time investigating this story, it's all about turning the head of someone in her entourage. "We examined some of her connections to organized crime groups, and many people believe that if Dr Ruja is still in hiding, it will be with their protection," says Jamie Bartlett, the journalist behind the BBC podcast series The Missing Cryptoqueen. "$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 $5 million just might.

"So to me, the increased reward is a sign that the FBI are now refocusing their efforts on the people around Dr Ruja, trying to tempt her close associates to get in touch. We will probably know within a few weeks if it’s worked."

Bartlett said the above in July 2024 when the new reward amount was announced. Seven months down the line there's been no major breakthrough, but there have been some developments. Before we get onto those, however, let's briefly go over what the OneCoin fraud was.

OneCoin appeared in 2014 and was essentially a multi-level marketing scam, but with crypto at the heart, and one of those schemes where people earn commissions for getting others to become "investors." A pretty straightforward pyramid scheme, in other words—but Ignatova was the key factor behind its spectacular growth. Highly educated, fabulously dressed, persuasive, charming, and capable of securing huge investments from her targets.

Ignatova and her associates managed to keep the appearance of legitimacy around OneCoin for several years before regulators started getting suspicious. The OneCoin exchange was closed in 2017 and Ignatova disappeared: She hasn't been seen since. The money lost to the scam is estimated at up to $4.5 billion, and Ignatova was subsequently charged with multiple financial crimes and been on the FBI's Most Wanted list since 2022.

Since the FBI bumped up its reward to $5 million last year, there have been some new elements in the story. The first is surprising only inasmuch as it took this long: In August last year Ignatova plus seven other people and four companies were hit with a global asset freeze.

All the individuals and companies are alleged to have some connection to OneCoin, which in some cases are more obvious than others. OneCoin co-founder Sebastian Greenwood is one of the individuals hit, but is also currently enjoying a 20 year stretch in a US prison for his role in the fraud. Others targeted by the freeze include Brits Christopher Hamilton and Robert MacDonald, who have been accused by the US of laundering OneCoin-linked money, though extradition attempts have thus far failed.

It's in the details of hearings like this that the scale of Ignatova's fraud becomes less abstract. Two companies based in Guernsey were subject to the order, both of which had been used by Ignatova to purchase a penthouse in Kensington for a cool £13.5 million, with a £1.9 million apartment thrown-in for the use of her bodyguards.

That freeze may seem like it's taken far too long to happen, which is undoubtedly true, but it's also a function of the OneCoin fraud being so mind-bogglingly vast, and it taking years for the authorities to catch up. The fraud has also become much more well-known about thanks to the dogged work of investigative journalists, and the victims themselves coming forward (one group was especially key to the asset freeze).

That wasn't the only Ignatova news subsequent to the FBI bounty, but it's the most solid. Otherwise we're in the realms of rumours about a missing person, which needless to say need taking with a full shaker of salt. Bellingcat and BBC investigative journalist Yoran Tsalov claimed in late November that Ignatova may be hiding out in Russia, arguing she "has been linked to multiple people and interests connected to the Kremlin."

Tsalov points to an interview in the Missing Cryptoqueen with Frank Schneider, Ignatova's former security adviser, which discusses these links, and adds that some of the companies linked to laundering OneCoin money are connected to the former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovich (who has been found guilty of treason in Ukraine and now lives in exile in Russia). Yanukovich's corruption while in office is extensively documented.

But wait: Others say "nyet." German filmmaker Johan von Mirbach has been investigating Ignatova for years and in a recent documentary broadcast on German station WDR claims that she is alive, well, and hiding out in Cape Town in South Africa (thanks, CoinGeek). Mirbach claims that "security agents" in South Africa had come across information about Ignatova while investigating the murder of four Bulgarians linked to the crime ring that, in other versions of the story, killed Ignatova years ago.

Mirbach claims Ignatova has been spotted in Cape Town, albeit not by him, but beyond that the case is largely circumstantial. Ignatova's brother Arthur, for example, has worked in South Africa and regularly travelled there, including one year after her disappearance.

The more lurid theory to end all is that Ignatova is already dead: And has been for a long time. The Bulgarian investigative reporting site BIRD published a report in 2023 based on internal police documents from the country, which say an informant overheard the brother-in-law of a drug lord saying Ignatova was murdered on a yacht off Greece, with her body chopped-up and chucked overboard. This was apparently to conceal the Bulgarian drug lord's involvement in OneCoin.

The FBI reckons Ignatova is still alive, travels with "armed guards," and "may have had plastic surgery," though as you get further into this story and the Bulgarian crime networks and mafia bosses, a fake nose may seem like the least surprising detail. If Ignatova is out there, and wasn't killed long ago, there probably are more terrifying people looking for her than the FBI.

Ignatova remains the only woman on the FBI's most wanted list. Her capture would be worth a life-changing amount of money and, if she is out there, you have to think sooner or later someone's going to forget the OneCoin, and go for the real thing.

The Missing Cryptoqueen: Dead or Alive? - BBC World Service Documentaries - YouTube

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