A missing cryptoqueen, dubbed the ‘world’s most wanted woman,’ Ruja Ignatova, now has a £4,000,000 bounty on her head.
Ruja Ignatova, originally from Bulgaria and holding German citizenship, is accused of orchestrating one of the largest cryptocurrency scams ever, defrauding investors of $4 billion (£3.3 billion) with a fake cryptocurrency called OneCoin in 2014.
The 43-year-old vanished in 2017 and has been on the FBI’s Most Wanted List since 2022.
Initially, the FBI offered a $100,000 reward for information on Ignatova, who is believed to have masterminded ‘one of the largest global fraud schemes in history.’ The reward has now been increased to $5,000,000.
“Ruja Ignatova is believed to travel with armed guards and/or associates,” states her FBI most wanted poster. “She may have had plastic surgery or otherwise altered her appearance.”
The FBI suspects she may be traveling with a German passport to countries such as the UAE, Russia, Greece, and Eastern Europe. However, there is also speculation that she may have been murdered by the Bulgarian mafia, who are suspected of being behind the OneCoin scheme.
Rja Ignatova was last seen boarding a Ryanair flight from Sofia to Athens on October 25, 2017, after fleeing her American boyfriend’s apartment upon learning he was cooperating with the FBI.
In 2018, documents found on a murdered Bulgarian police official suggested Ignatova might have been killed on a mafia boss’s private yacht, where she was allegedly paying for protection. The documents claimed her body was dismembered and dumped in the Ionian Sea, though the source was reportedly heavily intoxicated when making these claims, and the FBI continues to search, assuming she is alive.
When Ruja Ignatova was first added to the most-wanted list, the FBI noted she had escaped with a “tremendous amount of cash—enough to buy a lot of friends.”
BBC journalist Jamie Bartlett, whose podcast “The Missing Cryptoqueen” brought global attention to her story, believes the increased reward aims to incentivize those potentially still protecting her.
“The FBI is now refocusing their efforts on the people around Dr. Ruja, trying to tempt her close associates to come forward.”
While Ignatova remains at large, other members of the OneCoin scam have been apprehended. OneCoin’s co-founder, Karl Sebastian Greenwood, and former head of legal and compliance, Irina Dilkinska, both pleaded guilty to federal charges of wire fraud and money laundering related to the scam in December 2022.
