{"id":7295,"date":"2020-01-10T23:40:45","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T21:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.media\/?p=7295"},"modified":"2020-01-21T22:12:49","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T20:12:49","slug":"scam-of-the-decade-the-story-of-a-doctor-of-law-who-organized-the-onecoin-ponzi-scheme-and-vanished-with-billions-of-euros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/scam-of-the-decade-the-story-of-a-doctor-of-law-who-organized-the-onecoin-ponzi-scheme-and-vanished-with-billions-of-euros\/","title":{"rendered":"Scam of the Decade: the Story of a Doctor of Law Who Organized the OneCoin Ponzi Scheme and Vanished With Billions of Euros"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many OneCoin investors still believe they are taking part in the global financial revolution. Despite a slew of arrests and serious allegations mounted against the organizers of the scheme, they continue to invest, oblivious to any criticism. What started as just another Ponzi scheme has eventually evolved into the largest scam of the decade and a semblance of a religious cult that exists independently of the founder who disappeared without a trace back in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

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OneCoin was heralded as the \u201cBitcoin killer\u201d that would very soon make investors fabulously rich and bring down the unfair world order. These lofty promises were never fulfilled and investors around the world lost billions of euros.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where did the investor money go? Did OneCoin actually have influential godfathers in the post-Soviet space? All these questions could be answered by Dr. Ruja Ignatova, the founder of the scheme.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before her disappearance, Ignatova warned Gilbert Armenta, one of her accountants, about the danger posed by influential Russians.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be fucking careful. What these Russian guys can do you can not imagine. [\u2026] Do not use emails. Face to face or in encrypted form. Nothing else is safe. Just believe me. Please. I can get everything that I want within 24 hours. And if I can they can too,\u201d <\/strong>she said in a palpably scared voice.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

ForkLog delved into the intricacies of this Ponzi scheme, which has already gone down in history. Not for its revolutionary nature of course but rather for the impudence of execution and the extent of the damage inflicted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doctor Ignatova and the Birth of OneCoin<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Ruja Ignatova was the founder and the public face of the OneCoin project. She was invariably introduced as a talented businesswoman, a lady genius, and one of the richest women in Europe speaking several languages \u200b\u200band boasting degrees from the universities of Oxford and Konstanz (the latter at least is true).<\/span><\/p>\n

After the USSR collapsed, the Ignatov family moved from Bulgaria to a small town in southern Germany. At school, the future “crypto-Queen” was remembered as very smart but arrogant. Teachers recalled her possessing a \u201cphenomenal personality\u201d but emphasized that she had no friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 2000s, she worked for a McKinsey consulting company. Today it\u2019s hard to say at which point Ignatova went rogue but this could happen as early as 2009. At that time she and her father <\/span>acquired<\/span><\/a> the Walthofener Gusswerk metallurgical factory based in a small German town promising employees development and prosperity. The latter considered her a \u201csavior\u201d but when they felt something wasn\u2019t right, it was already too late. Ignatova sold the plant, destroyed all potentially incriminating documents and disappeared. A few days later the factory went bankrupt and was closed forever. In the aftermath as late as in 2016 Ignatova got a suspended <\/span>sentence<\/span><\/a> in Germany and was ordered to pay a fine of 18,000 euros.<\/span><\/p>\n

She moved back to Sofia in 2012. Before launching OneCoin Ignatova was involved with another Ponzi scheme called BigCoin, where she probably met her future accomplice and possible lover\u2014a Swedish national Sebastian Greenwood. OneCoin can, in fact, be called an improved copy of BigCoin. The damage the latter has incurred is estimated at $50 million.<\/span><\/p>\n