OneCoin’s ‘Cryptoqueen’ alive and in South Africa: report

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One of the world’s most wanted criminals, OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova, is alive and residing in South Africa, a new documentary alleges.

Ignatova, known in digital asset circles as ‘Cryptoqueen,’ founded OneCoin in 2014 and grew it into a multi-billion dollar project, promising unsuspecting investors that she had invented “the next Bitcoin.” However, it was all a sham, and when her house of cards came crashing down in 2017, she fled from her home in Bulgaria and hasn’t been seen since. Several reports have alleged she’s long dead, including one that claimed she had been chopped into pieces by a mafia boss and dumped into the Ionian Sea in 2018.

However, according to German filmmaker Johan von Mirbach, who has been investigating the Cryptoqueen for years and pursuing leads globally, Ignatova is alive and hiding in an affluent neighborhood in the picturesque coastal city of Cape Town in South Africa.

In his documentary on Ignatova for regional German TV network WDR, Mirbach revealed that sources in security in South Africa had alerted him that the scammer had been spotted in Cape Town in the company of Bulgarian nationals. The South African sleuths had stumbled onto information about Ignatova as they were investigating the murder of four Bulgarians who had ties to the crime ring that was initially accused of killing the OneCoin founder and dumping her in the sea. Some outlets reported that one of the four was cooperating with United States authorities to shed more light on Ignatova.

‘She is alive. Period.’

The documentary first dug into previous claims that Ignatova had died years ago. The most circulated was the report claiming she was killed by a Bulgarian crime lord who had been involved in the OneCoin scam to cover his tracks.

However, several factors poke holes in this claim. The first is the alleged hitman who killed Ignatova; according to the Düsseldorf LKA (State Criminal Police Office), he was in prison in the Netherlands at the supposed time of Ignatova’s murder.

Sabine Dässel, the spokesperson for the LKA, says that this overlap “naturally contradicts the information in the document. We are operating on the hypothesis that Ruja Ignatova is still alive,” reports German news outlet Der Spiegel.

Additionally, investigators who kept a close eye on Ignatova’s friends and family at the time of the supposed murder say none mourned her, which they concluded was because they had “no knowledge of Ruja Ignatova’s death.”

And then there’s Duncan Arthur’s confession. Arthur was in the inner circle in the Ignatova operation; on the day when Ruja’s brother, Konstantin Ignatov, was arrested at a Los Angeles airport, he was traveling alongside Arthur.

Arthur told the documentary makers that Konstantin continued to speak regularly with his sister after her disappearance in 2017, which was when he assumed the leadership of the scam.

He added, “There is no murder. She is alive, period.”

Is Cryptoqueen in South Africa?

After debunking the claims of her death, the filmmakers set out to unearth where Ignatova has been hiding for the past seven years, and South Africa came up as the most likely destination.

First, security agents in the country had tipped the filmmakers that she had been spotted in Cape Town, although her exact location—if she really is there—remains unknown.

Beyond the tips from the agents, Ignatova has several links to the African nation. Her brother, for instance, has traveled to the country on several occasions, including one year after she disappeared; he documented his stay in South Africa on Instagram.

Arthur, who was arrested alongside Konstantin, is also a dual citizen of South Africa and Ireland. According to his LinkedIn, he has worked extensively in the African country, with most of his roles—ironically—being in financial compliance.

The documentary is the latest to dive into the life of the infamous Cryptoqueen, who has managed to elude authorities for years despite being on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Top 10 Most Wanted list since July 2022. The FBI offered $100,000 for any information leading to her arrest at the time, but the American agency has since raised the amount to $5 million.

Her close associates have been handed varying sentences. Karl Sebastian Greenwood, who co-founded the scam alongside Ignatova, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2023 and ordered to disgorge $300 million. Her ex-boyfriend, Gilbert Armenta, who was also involved in the scam, got five years for wire fraud and money laundering, while lawyer Mark Scott, who allegedly laundered over $400 million for OneCoin, is serving ten years behind bars.

However, her brother, Konstantin, walked away earlier this year after cooperating with authorities. He had spent 34 months in jail as he awaited sentencing and, as part of the agreement, disgorged $118,000 in ill-gotten gains.

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