Bulgarian OneCoin founder and purported ‘cryptoqueen’ Ruja Ignatova, who has been listed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s database as one of the ten most wanted fugitives since 2022, has been alleged to be alive and residing in Cape Town, Cape {town} Etc reports.
Currently, the US has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Ignatova.
Also read: Constantia murders: SAPS appeals to public to help find suspects
Several stories suggested that she had been murdered, including one which claimed that Ignatova had been ‘chopped into pieces’ by a mafia boss and dumped into the Ionian Sea in 2018, as reported by Coin Geek.
However, police in Germany have confirmed that they are looking into whether she may be alive and hiding out in South Africa, according to Daily Maverick.
Clues about Ignatova’s whereabouts suggesting that she was in South Africa were first reported on in Germany, namely in the German documentary Die Kryptoqueen – Ruja Ignatova und ihr Milliarden-Betrug by regional German TV network WDR.
The German publication Der Spiegel also previously published an article on 8 November, stating that German authorities suspected that previous reports of Ignatova’s death were false. They then focussed their attention on following leads in South Africa.
Cape {town} Etc previously reported in 2023 on how one of the four people who was fatally shot in Constantia on 25 May 2023 was identified as Krasimir Nikolaev Kamenov, a fugitive wanted by the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol).
Kamenov, along with his wife Gergana and two others, were killed in the shooting.
It would later come to light on 12 June 2023 that Kamenov had ties to Ignatova, as previously reported by Cape {town} Etc.
Before he was murdered, Kamenov had been named in a conspiracy against Bulgaria’s public prosecutor, which hinted at the presence of criminal elements within Bulgaria’s government.
Kamenov was wanted in connection with the assassination of a former policeman, Lyubomir Ivanov, in Sofia in March 2022.
Documents found in Ivanov’s home after his murder suggested that Ignatova herself may have been killed in November 2018, but there was no official confirmation of her death at the time.
After Kamenov’s murder in 2023, the Bureau of Investigative Reporting and Data in Bulgaria revealed that he had been their source for police reports regarding Ignatova’s alleged murder.
In addition, they also claimed that Kamenov was about to ‘provide additional information’ to US investigators.
Earlier this year on 8 March 2024, the South African Police Service (SAPS) appealed to the public to help trace two suspects in connection to the 2023 Constantia shooting.
Six suspects were spotted fleeing the scene in a blue Hyundai and white VW Golf GTI, after the shooting, while two individuals were later seen ‘under a bridge on the N1’, driving a white VW Passat and the same VW Golf GTI from the crime scene, according to a SAPS press statement issued at the time.
Ignatova allegedly participated in a large-scale fraud scheme, that started in approximately 2014, where she and other accomplices allegedly defrauded billions of dollars from investors all over the world through OneCoin Ltd., a Bulgaria-based company that marketed a purported cryptocurrency.
Ignatova allegedly made false statements and representations to individuals to ‘solicit investments in OneCoin’, where she instructed victims to transmit investment funds to OneCoin accounts to purchase OneCoin packages, which caused victims to send wire transfers representing these investments.
It is believed that, throughout the scheme, OneCoin has defrauded victims of more than $4 billion.
Through October 2017, Ignatova served as OneCoin’s top leader and on 25 October 2017, she travelled from Sofia, Bulgaria, to Athens, Greece, and may have ‘travelled elsewhere’ after that, according to the FBI.
On 12 October 2017, Ignatova was charged in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York and a federal warrant was issued for her arrest.
On 6 February 2018, a superseding indictment was issued that charged Ignatova with one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud.
Also read:
Investigation into Constantia murders reveals ties to elusive ‘CryptoQueen’
Picture: Federal Bureau of Investigation / Screenshot
