Missing Cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova’s links to Bulgarian underworld

Now we’ve followed her trail, trying to discover her fate. BBC Eye Investigations and Panorama investigated her close relationship with a Bulgarian organized crime suspect and allegations of her brutal murder. Did Ms. Ignatova enjoy the billions that were stolen, or was she murdered by those who paid to protect her?

Oxford University graduate Ruja Ignatova, who was born in Bulgaria and raised in Germany, had a successful career in finance before launching the cryptocurrency OneCoin in 2014.

Ms. Ignatova persuaded millions of people around the world to invest in OneCoin, promising huge returns that would surpass those of early Bitcoin investors.

But in reality, Ms. Ignatova — known to many as “Dr. Ruja” — cleverly disguised an investment fraud without the digital record that underlies legitimate cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

When German and American investigators zeroed in on Ms Ignatova, she took an early morning Ryanair flight from Sofia to Athens in October 2017 and was never seen again.

Over the past year, BBC World Service’s Eye Investigations and Panorama have been trying to find out more about what happened to her and whether she is still alive.

The key is identifying who her inner circle is.

Richard Reinhardt, who along with the FBI began investigating OneCoin for the Internal Revenue Service, told the BBC that investigators had never publicly raised the issue before. The names of key people involved.

Missing Crypto Queen: Dead or Alive?

Ruja Ignatova, the CEO of fake cryptocurrency OneCoin, is the FBI’s most wanted woman. She stole billions of dollars and then disappeared. New evidence sheds light on what might have happened. Was she missing or murdered?

Watch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only) or on Monday 3 June at 20:00 (Wales 22:40) on BBC One. Outside the UK, Watch on YouTube

or listen The missing Cryptoqueen in BBC Sounds

The BBC understands the person responsible for Ms Ignatova’s safety is Hristoforos Nikos Amanatidis, better known as Taki.

“We were told that a major drug lord was allegedly responsible for her security,” Mr. Reinhart told CNN in his first interview since his retirement in late 2023.

“Taki appears more than once, this is not a one-off. This is a recurring theme.

This is consistent with what we already know – U.S. government lawyers said in 2019 that Ms. Ignatova’s security chief was a major organized crime figure in Bulgaria, without naming him.

“We do have evidence that one of the very important, if not the most prolific, drug traffickers Bulgaria has ever had had close ties to OneCoin – Ser. [Ruja Ignatova’s] Private security,” said an assistant attorney.

Another US government lawyer said that this “security chief” was “related” to Ignatova’s disappearance in court a day ago.

Mr Reinhart said Ms Ignatova was a more sophisticated criminal than most people realized.

“It’s like a white-collar criminal combined with a drug dealer or a mafia member.”

Leaked Europol documents seen by the BBC appear to support this theory, showing that Bulgarian police established a connection between Ms Ignatova and Taki before she disappeared in 2017 Contacted.

In the documents, police suspected that Taki used OneCoin’s financial network to launder proceeds from drug trafficking.

In his native Bulgaria, Taki enjoys almost mythical status – “El Chapo” or “Pablo Escobar”. He is widely suspected of being the leader of Bulgarian organized crime and a prolific drug smuggler. He and his associates were investigated there for armed robbery, drug smuggling and murder, but he was never successfully prosecuted for anything.

“When we talk about Taki, he is the leader of the Bulgarian mafia. He is very powerful,” said Ivan Hristanov, a former deputy minister of Bulgaria who investigated Taki in 2022. Allegations of operating a criminal network with the help of corrupt officials and it is believed that this is the case.

“Taki is a ghost. You will never see him. You only hear him. He is talking to you through other people. If you don’t listen, you will disappear from the face of the earth.

“The only person who can protect her [Ignatova] From all these investigations, including those from foreign agencies, it was Taki.

The BBC has written to the Bulgarian government about allegations of corrupt officials. It didn’t respond. The prosecutor’s office in the capital Sofia stated that “criminal acts and those who may have committed crimes will not be covered up.”

Taki is now believed to live in Dubai, where Ms Ignatova bought a luxury penthouse and her bank account received tens of millions of dollars as a result of the OneCoin fraud.

While it is unclear how Taki and Ms. Ignatova met or whether he was involved with OneCoin from the beginning, multiple sources said they had a close personal relationship and that he was Her daughter’s godfather.

A Bulgarian source close to Ms Ignatova told the BBC she could be paying Taki up to €100,000 a month for protection

There appear to be other financial ties between Ms. Ignatova and Taki.

The Europol documents refer to a complex deal to sell a piece of land on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast that linked one of Ms Ignatova’s companies to Taki’s wife.

The secret police documents were handed over to the BBC by Frank Schneider, a former spy and adviser to Ms Ignatova who has now disappeared.

He told us his former boss was working with “crooks” and “gangsters.”

When we interviewed Mr. Schneider at his home in France, he was under house arrest awaiting extradition to the United States over his OneCoin scam. However, he was not prepared to reveal names.

“I’m not going to tell you who it is because I have a family… This is really serious organized crime.”

But in the end, Ms. Ignatova’s protector may have become the aggressor.

In 2022, Bulgarian investigative journalist Dimitar Stoyanov and colleagues at investigative news outlet Bird.bg received a police report that was found in the home of a murdered Bulgarian policeman of.

In the documents, a police informant detailed what Taki’s brother-in-law heard in a drunken state, saying that Ms. Ignatova was murdered on Taki’s orders in late 2018 and that her body was dismembered and removed from the body. Capsized on a yacht in the Ionian Sea. Mr Stoyanov said this was “very, very possible”.

Stoyanov said Bulgarian officials confirmed the authenticity of the police documents and that several of Taki’s criminal associates believed that he murdered her.

However, the BBC was unable to independently verify this claim.

Colleagues reasoned that the wanted Ms. Ignatova became a liability for Taki, who wanted to eliminate his connection to the OneCoin fraud.

These associates include Krasimir Kamenov (Kuro), who is wanted by Interpol for murder.

Mr Stoyanov said Kulow told him he heard Taki discussing his criminal behavior in front of Ms Ignatova, and when Kulow questioned whether Taki should have done so, Taki replied: “Don’t worry, She is dead.

Kuro also claimed to have spoken to the CIA about Taki, including allegations that Taki ordered the murder of Ms. Ignatova. Sources close to Kuro confirmed to the BBC that the meeting took place in late 2022.

In May 2023, Kurow, his wife and two other people who worked for him were assassinated in their home in Cape Town. South African police are still looking for the killer, but former Bulgarian deputy minister Khristanov believes Kurow’s murder is related to Taki.

“Some people have to be eliminated because they know too much about Taki.

“This was a public execution, it looked more like a statement. Be careful who you deal with,” he told us.

Journalist Dimitar Stoyanov said he and his colleagues had faced death threats since publishing allegations about Ms Ignatova’s murder, forcing him to take the fourth post in his career. Leaving Bulgaria temporarily.

Mr Stoyanov did not claim to know any motive for the alleged murder, but property records show witnesses told him that some of her properties in Bulgaria were now being used by people linked to Taki since her disappearance.

Taki was never arrested for his alleged murder of Ms. Ignatova. Her body was never found and investigators said they did not have enough evidence to charge him.

But former IRS investigator Richard Reinhart believes Ms. Ignatova is likely dead. Although he saw no evidence linking her death to Taki, he said it was consistent with how drug cartels operate.

“There is no honor among thieves… You know how violent the cartels are, if [Taki] Thinking she was a threat to him…he might take her out instead of getting caught.

The BBC wrote to Taki’s lawyers about the allegations in the investigation but they did not respond.

In 2022, Ms. Ignatova was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list – a list she remains on today.

The BBC team behind the Missing Cryptoqueen podcast received reports of various sightings and movements of Ms Ignatova in the aftermath of her alleged murder, including details of the operation by Greek police to capture her in 2022.

Rumors about her death might just be another brilliant ploy to throw everyone off track.

If this is the case, as time goes by, it may become more and more difficult for her to continue to escape.

“At some point, Elvis might still be alive … that’s unlikely,” Mr. Khristanov said.

Mr. Reinhart said the FBI “doesn’t just lock people in [the] Top Ten Entertainment Rankings”. But they will only remove someone if there is “conclusive evidence” that they are dead. Ruja Ignatova may never achieve this goal given the current situation.

This means that, for now at least, the missing crypto queen remains a hunted woman.