Journalists uncover London penthouse of OneCoin founder for £13.5m

OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova bought a luxurious penthouse in London for £13.5m (~$18.21m). This was disclosed during the trial of her lawyer Martin Breidenbach, according to BBC.

On 17 September 2021 in Germany he appeared before a court on charges of money laundering involving a €20m transfer in 2016 to fund the purchase of elite real estate for Ignatova.

The deal was conducted through the Guernsey-registered Aquitaine Group.

According to the BBC, when the contract was signed in August 2016, the financial regulator of at least one European country had already issued a warning about the OneCoin scheme.

A few months before the purchase, Ignatova admitted to involvement in bankruptcy fraud related to a German metallurgical plant. This fact was not widely known, journalists noted.

The deal was backed by the law firm Locke Lord. The provenance of the €20m raised questions, but entities linked to Ignatova passed due diligence. After this Locke Lord proceeded with purchasing the apartments jointly with Aquitaine Group. Knight Frank acted as the agent.

The ultimate owner of the flat was Abbots Property Limited, also registered in Guernsey.

Witnesses said the four-bedroom penthouse was adorned with works by renowned artists, including Andy Warhol. Private Eye specialists estimated that artworks worth £500,000 were on display in the apartment, purchased from Halcyon in London. Where they are now is unknown.

In the same building, Abbots House Limited owns another two-bedroom flat, also bought in 2016 for £1.9m. In a comment to the publication, a former Swiss national said that Ignatova’s bodyguards lived there.

He also said that Ignatova lived in the penthouse very little. After her disappearance in October 2017, the apartment was visited by her brother Konstantin Ignatov and OneCoin’s head of security Frank Schneider, according to the BBC.

The first arrest was at Los Angeles International Airport in 2019. Schneider was detained in France in April 2021 at the request of U.S. authorities.

In November 2019, a judge in the Southern District of New York found OneCoin lawyer Mark Scott guilty of laundering $400m. He was also stripped of his attorney’s license.

In August 2021, 14 people linked to the OneCoin pyramid were charged with fraud with aggravating circumstances.