Ruja Ignatova
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
| Ruja Ignatova | |
|---|---|
| Ignatova in 2015
Ignatova in 2015
|
|
| FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives | |
| Reward | $100,000 |
| Description | |
| Born | Ruzha Plamenova Ignatova 30 May 1980 Ruse, Bulgaria |
| Status | |
| Penalty | 16 months' suspended imprisonment for a previous case. Up to 90 years for the Ponzi scheme |
| Added | June 30, 2022 |
| Number | 527 |
| Currently A Top Ten Fugitive | |
Ruja Ignatova (Bulgarian: Ружа Пламенова Игнатова; born 30 May 1980) is a Bulgarian-German convicted fraudster. She is best known as the founder of a Ponzi scheme known as OneCoin, which The Times has described as "one of the biggest scams in history".[1][2][3] She was the subject of the 2019 BBC podcast series The Missing Cryptoqueen.[4]
Since 2017, Ignatova has been on the run from various international law enforcement agencies. In early 2019, she was charged in absentia by U.S. authorities for wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering. She was added to the FBI Ten Most Wanted in June 2022.[1]
Contents
Early life and education
Born in Ruse, Bulgaria, in 1980[5] to a Romani family, Ignatova emigrated to Germany with her family when she was ten years old, and spent part of her childhood in Schramberg in the state of Baden-Württemberg.[6][1]. She got her BA from University of Oxford [7] and in 2005, she earned a PhD in private international law from the University of Constance with the dissertation Art. 5 Nr. 1 EuGVO – Chancen und Perspektiven der Reform des Gerichtsstands am Erfüllungsort, which discusses lex causae in conflict of laws.[8] She reportedly has also worked for McKinsey & Company.[9]
In November 2011, Ignatova invested in Asdin Ran's beauty salon The Hall of Transvestites Ursula.[10]
Criminal activities
In 2012, she was convicted of fraud in Germany in connection with her and her father Plamen Ignatov's acquisition of a company that shortly afterwards was declared bankrupt in dubious circumstances; she was given a suspended sentence of 14 months' imprisonment.[11][12]
In 2013, she was involved with a multi-level marketing scam called BigCoin.[13]
In 2014, she founded a Ponzi scheme called OneCoin. In 2019, her brother Konstantin Ignatov pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering in connection with the scheme.[14]
In 2022, the police in Germany confirmed an investigation of "a lawyer from Neu-Isenburg" for possible money laundering: the transfer of 7.69 million euros by Ignatova into one of his private accounts in 2016. In January 2022 police searched apartments and offices in Weilburg, Baden-Baden, Frankfurt am Main, Bad Homburg, Neu-Isenburg and Vaihingen.[15]
In May 2022, Europol added Ignatova to its 'most wanted' list.[16] On 30 June 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation added Ignatova to the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, at a joint press conference with IRS Criminal Investigation and United States Attorney's Office Southern District of New York, offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to her arrest.[17]
Personal life
Ignatova was married to a German lawyer, with whom she had a daughter in 2016.[1].
See also
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Cite error: Invalid <references> tag; parameter "group" is allowed only.
<references />, or <references group="..." />External links
Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons- The Missing Crypto Queen at BBC Sounds
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Fahndungsaufruf zu Ruja Ignatova In: Bundeskriminalamt, 11. May 2022.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Pages with reference errors
- Articles with short description
- Use mdy dates from June 2022
- Articles with invalid date parameter in template
- Pages with broken file links
- Missing people
- Articles containing Bulgarian-language text
- 1980 births
- Living people
- People from Schramberg
- People from Ruse, Bulgaria
- Bulgarian emigrants to Germany
- Bulgarian expatriates in Germany
- Bulgarian people of Romani descent
- Bulgarian fraudsters
- German fraudsters
- German people of Romani descent
- FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
- Fugitives wanted by the United States
- People associated with cryptocurrency
- People charged with wire fraud
- University of Konstanz alumni
- 21st-century Bulgarian criminals
