This week, BBC Sounds released an investigative podcast hosted by Jamie Bartlett all about Dr Ruja Ignatova, the woman alleged to be behind what could be the largest cryptocurrency scam of all time in what the US Department of Justice called an "old fashioned pyramid scheme on a new school platform". In 2017, Ruja disappeared. She hasn't been seen since.



The podcast investigates what happened after she vanished, as the team travels to Germany, Uganda and Bulgaria in search of the self-proclaimed 'Cryptoqueen'. But what's the story that led up to this manhunt? How did one woman get almost £4bn from total strangers?

Who is Ruja Ignatova?

In 2014 a woman named Ruja Ignatova founded a company called OneCoin and opened an office in Slaveykov Central Capital Square, Bulgaria. Riding on the wave of the cryptocurrency movement, OneCoin claimed to be a digital currency "just like the serial number on a paper bill, each digital coin is unique. Unlike money issued by governments, there is a finite number of OneCoins, ensuring they cannot be affected by inflation and are impossible to counterfeit." The vision declared on the website is "to improve the lives of all people worldwide".

By 2016 the company claimed to have more than 3.5million users worldwide, plus hundreds of thousands of investors who were promised huge returns. The BBC reports that investors from the UK alone put at least £26m into the scam over one six-month window in 2016.

OneCoin Cryptocurrency Information Centre OneCoin

Business was good: the company had a glistening office in Bulgaria, a head office in Dubai and had announced plans to open offices around the world. Ruja, meanwhile, was reportedly investing in property, while OneCoin members were out and about meeting others and encouraging them to buy OneCoin packages for up to €27,500. One British woman, named Jen McAdam says she was "brainwashed" into investing almost £9,000 and encouraged her family to also buy into the currency, after she'd been told that some investors were making £3.5m per month.

How did the scam unfold?

But in early 2015 things began to unravel. Investors were becoming suspicious of the numbers (allegedly Ruja was lying to investors to inflate the value of the currency and accepting investor money without creating any more of it), so she hired an auditor to appease them. Meanwhile, Ruja continued to travel the world pushing for investors, with her brother acting as her personal assistant. She is alleged to have expressed concern with a colleague at the number of investors asking questions before following up with a note that read, "[A]s you told me, the network would not work with intelligent people ;)", according to Quartz magazine.

Dr Ruja Ignatova OneCoin

Eventually, having made the cryptocurrency available on the US market, American authorities caught wind of the scheme and began investigating. It came to light that members were paid a commission if they were able to recruit other members into investing in the currency, and that the currency itself was completely artificial, so there simply couldn't be any return on investment. The company was little more than a pyramid scheme that had capitalised on the cryptocurrency wave. It is reportedly the biggest cryptocurrency scam the world has ever seen, and even more shockingly, the website is still up and running.

Where is Ruja Ignatova now?

Konstantin, Ruja's PA brother was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport earlier this year and could face up to 20 years in prison. Ruja, the self-proclaimed "Bitch of Wall Street" meanwhile, was indicted on money laundering, as well as wire and securities fraud, but vanished before she could be arrested.

She faces five separate charges, with the potential to add up to 85 years in prison. But, Ruja, who reportedly said in an email that she had an "exit strategy", has not been seen or heard from since.

The Missing Cryptoqueen investigates exactly what happened...

The Missing Cryptoqueen is out on BBC Sounds now.

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