Who is the Missing Cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova? Details explored ahead of In Pursuit with John Walsh

The new episode of In Pursuit With John Walsh looks into the rise and fall of the Bulgarian-German entrepreneur, Ruja Ignatova. Ignatova was behind the multimillion-dollar fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme, OneCoin, which was flagged down in 2016 by multiple countries.

Ruja Ignatova had grown up as a star student who had reportedly completed her education in law at Oxford University and Konstanz University. She had also worked at McKinsey & Company before she started OneCoin.

The In Pursuit With John Walsh episode titled Crypto Queenpin showcases the pursuit of Ruja Ignatova as it airs on June 19, 2024, at 10 p.m. EST on Investigation Discovery. The official synopsis reads,

"John takes on accused financial fraudster Ruja Ignatova, whose alleged crypto con landed her on the FBI's top ten most wanted list; Callahan heads to Pennsylvania on the trail of Freddy Calle, accused of sexually abusing a teenage girl."

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Who is Ruja Ignatova? Details explored

Ruja Plamenova Ignatova was born on May 30, 1980 in Ruse, Bulgaria.

According to the New York Post, Ignatova's family moved to Schramberg, Germany from Bulgaria in 1990. She was ten years of age when they relocated and her father found work in a tire shop. The family lived in an apartment above a butcher's shop.

The British investigative reporter Jamie Bartlett who authored the book based on Ruja Ignatova's life, The Missing Crypto Queen, wrote,

“In school she was top of every class, brilliant in every subject. One teacher in Schramberg said she was the smartest student he’d ever taught.”

Ruja attended the prestigious Konstanz University with a scholarship she earned at the age of 18 and earned a doctorate in private international law in 2005. Before this, she had allegedly completed her education at the University of Oxford in European Law.

According to the Daily Mail UK, Ignatova worked for six years at McKinsey & Company after which she launched OneCoin in late 2014. Her competition was Bitcoin as CNN Business shared that she shared with her investors,

“In two years, nobody will speak about Bitcoin anymore.”

OneCoin Ltd. was based in Bulgaria and registered in Dubai during operation and managed to scam investors worldwide for approximately $4 billion. The Times called the OneCoin pyramid scheme one of the biggest scams in history.

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When did Ruja Ignatova disappear? Details explored

According to BBC News, Ruja Ignatova disappeared on October 25, 2017, while growing tensions and investigation surrounding her cryptocurrency scam OneCoin. Ignatova had allegedly received the police documents indicating her arrest from her trusted adviser, the former spy Frank Schneider.

However, Schneider had denied any role in the leak of the documents further mentioning that Ignatova had collected the files with the help of her contacts in Bulgaria. While her brother, Konstantin Ignatov, pled guilty to the charges, she remained absconding for years.

The efforts of the Federal Criminal Police Office in Germany and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States proved ineffective as she remains at large presently. Moreover, a Bureau of Investigative Reporting and Data report mentioned the possibility of her being executed by the Bulgarian drug kingpin Taki or Hristoforos Amanatidis, who possibly had a stake in her endeavors.

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Catch all the details in the new episode of In Pursuit with John Walsh as it airs on Investigation Discovery on Wednesday, June 19.