This is the True Cyber Crime Story of Ruja Ignatova A/K/A The Crypto Queen, on the FBI’s Top 10 MOST WANTED. She is wanted and remains at large. It's alleged to be the single largest Crypto currency Ponzi scheme in history. Three main players, Ruja Ignatova (The Crypto Queen), her brother Konstantin and Sebastian Greenwood (the public face of ONECOIN and ONELIFE) wreaked havoc on the world amassing over $4 Billion dollars for a crypto currency that never even existed.
They sold out Wembly Stadium while fire shot to the sky and Alicia Keyes’ song “This girl is on fire” radiated into the balconies.
Our mission is to keep you, your family and your organization's brand safe. Nothing technical or boring. Through humor and real-life stories we make sense of Cybersecurity.
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This is the True Cyber Crime Story of Ruja Ignatova A/K/A The Crypto Queen, on the FBI’s Top 10 MOST WANTED. She is wanted and remains at large. It's alleged to be the single largest Crypto currency Ponzi scheme in history. Three main players, Ruja Ignatova (The Crypto Queen), her brother Konstantin and Sebastian Greenwood (the public face of ONECOIN and ONELIFE) wreaked havoc on the world amassing over $4 Billion dollars for a crypto currency that never even existed.
They sold out Wembly Stadium while fire shot to the sky and Alicia Keyes’ song “This girl is on fire” radiated into the balconies.
Our mission is to keep you, your family and your organization's brand safe. Nothing technical or boring. Through humor and real-life stories we make sense of Cybersecurity.
Try KiteWorks today at www.KiteWorks.com
Don't Miss our Video on this Exciting KiteWorks Offer!
Try KiteWorks today at www.KiteWorks.com
Don't miss this Video on it!
The Most Secure Managed File Transfer System.
The Crypto Queen-WANTED by FBI-Ruja Ignatova
[00:00:00] David Mauro:So today's story is about an international fraud at a scale, never before scene.
Mark Mosher:David, why don't you walk us through it?
David Mauro:Why did normally sensible people invest most or all of their money into a bogus currency?
Mark Mosher:That is insane.
David Mauro:It was led by like a cult-like recruitment program with a lady who has been termed and self-proclaimed queen of crypto was called one.
[00:00:30] It was the newest crypto coin to end all other coins. It was called the “Bitcoin killer”. There are over the 12,000 different types of cryptocurrencies. Nothing was supposed to be like ONCECOIN and nothing was. This was one poised to break all the records and bring great fortune to many. It was set to revolutionize the cryptocurrency market promising staggering returns for investors. 59] They had
[00:01:00] webinars, trading seminars, marketing campaigns, public speeches, epic news media coverages, a fateful evening show at Wembley Stadium with music blasting the song, "This Girl Is On Fire", all while pyrotechnics shot up flames that seemed to touch the sky above the UK. Then in a flash, governments declared it as a fraud. 23] And then their offices were raided. And it was learned that there was, in fact, no blockchain technology whatsoever creating this coin. That's the heart of any cryptocurrency is the security and the reality behind it. And the crypto exchange that it was hosted on couldn't even cash out the coins, the people that had invested thousands, no millions, actually billions 48] in combined life savings into this crypto coin called ONCECOIN that actually never even existed. By
[00:02:00] 2017 this crypto queen seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth with over $1 billion missing or lost and hundreds of thousands of people bankrupt or having lost their life savings. This...is the True Cyber Crime Story of THE CRYPTO QUEEN.
Mark Mosher:Lucky to work for a great group of people you really believe in, find yourself making an impact.
David Mauro:Technology is a river that flows through every aspect of an organization. And today is different. We put ourselves and our organizations literally at risk of complete destruction. Every single time we get online, one click.
[00:02:38] One distraction is all it takes. Hi, Cybercrime Junkies. This is your host David Mauro along with co-host Mark Mosher.
Mark Mosher: Come join us as we explore our research into these blockbuster true crime stories, along with interviews of leaders who built and protect great brands.[00:03:00]
[00:03:02] So today's story is one that most people have never heard of. And when David and I began researching it every time we peeled back the onion, it got crazier and crazier. David, why don't you walk us through it?
David Mauro:Ruja Ignatova. The crypto queen. She called it ONECOIN. Her team made slick videos. Promising that buying ONECOIN was a way to ride the crypto wave for people who didn't understand crypto. And word quickly spread reaching people in 175 different countries around the world.
[00:03:39] By 2016, Ignatova could pack a stadium. And she did. She claimed ONECOIN was easy to use. It was for everyone. You could make payments everywhere. Everyone can and they can do it globally. It was to really transform [00:04:00] and revolutionize currency as we know it. Ruja Ignatova was born in Bulgaria on May 30th, 1980, born in a town called Ruse.
[00:04:12] She immigrated to Germany with her family when she was 10 and then spent part of her childhood in in Schramberg in the state of Baden-Württemberg. She got her BA from University of Oxford. And in 2005, she earned a PhD in private international law from the University of Constance. She also worked for McKinsey and company, which is a very well known global
[00:04:36] management consulting firm founded way back in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James McKinzie. For those who may have. remembered McKinsey, it has been associated with a few newsworthy events, like the collapse of Enron in 2001, the 2008 financial crisis and others. Ignatova was an attorney [00:05:00] was married to a German lawyer with whom she had a daughter in 2016.
[00:05:04] Shortly thereafter she disappeared. And today her whereabouts remain unknown. A quick timeline of events involve following:in 2012, she was convicted of fraud in Germany, in connection with her and her father Plamen Ignatov's acquisition of a company that shortly afterwards was declared bankrupt in very skeptical circumstances.
[00:05:28] She was given a suspended license sentence of 14 months imprisonment. Meaning she had jail hanging over head. And if she violated anything, she would've to serve 14 months in jail. But, that didn't seem to stop her. The following year in 2013, she was involved in a multi-level marketing scam called “big coin’. 53] And then the following year after that, she founded the Ponzi scheme called ONECOIN
[00:06:00] In 2019, her brother Konstantin Ignatova pled guilty to fraud money lording in connection. With this scheme in 2022 police in Germany confirmed an investigation of this lawyer from Nunberg for money laundering, the transfer of 7.7 million euros by Ignatova into one of the private accounts.
[00:06:26] But they owned in January of this year, 2022, the police searched the apartments and offices in Wilberg Baden, Baden, Frankfurt, and Maine bot Hoberg. And in May, 2022 Europe poll added Ignatova to its most wanted list on June 30th of this year, 2022. The federal bureau of investigations in the us, the FBI added Ignatova to the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives lists and held a joint press conference with IRS criminal [00:07:00] investigation and the United States attorney's office for the Southern district of New York, offering a reward that stands today of over a hundred thousand dollars for information leading to our arrest.
[00:07:10] It has made international news and there's been a leading podcast on the BBC podcast platform. So check that out as well. It's essentially the hunt for this woman today. That's a quick overview of the timeline, but now we're gonna explain what actually happened. And there have been a lot of Ponzi schemes in the past.
[00:07:30] think of Bernie Madoff's massive fraud involving the, exchange and stocks and investments from, from thousands of people, many of them celebrities throughout the world and the United States. That even appeals to comparison to what was accomplished here. The companies behind the scheme involving Rui Ignatova were ONECOIN limited and ONELIFE network limited and search and research of those organizations.[00:08:00]
[00:08:00] Is striking. When you, when you see them online, you would think they had found the next big thing. they were run by Roja and her brother Konstantine Konstantine Ignatova and from 2014 to 2016, combined along with their chief marketing partner, Sebastian Greenwood, they had been able to raise over 4 billion. 27] That makes what Theranos. Almost pale in comparison. All of this revenue was from investors who believed they were buying cryptocurrency and access, but in reality were, were receiving nothing. Besides maybe what's alleged to be the most, mostly plagiarized educational training., as we've learned, one of the key factors making the such a scam was that one coin itself was not an actively traded cryptocurrency.
[00:08:55] Like it was claiming to be nor could the coins be used to purchase [00:09:00] anything. The company's main business was essentially only delivering one product, not a cryptocurrency, but rather in selling the course material. In our research, we found that the educational materials were themselves. In fact, mostly plagiarized in most cases, that's what the research and the allegations are said.
[00:09:19] The course material business model was akin to MLM scheme. A multi-level marketing scheme were course material buyers were paid to recruit new buyers. And how did ONECOIN work? Well, their claim was a powerful one and that was that one coins could be mind. There was a cryptocurrency and that it could be mined and that there existed in the world 120 billion coins that were available and they could be used to make payments, even having an EAL that you can open and save your coins into.
[00:09:54] However, the reality was far different. There was in fact, no one coin [00:10:00] blockchain model or payment system. As we mentioned, the company did sell education materials such as courses on crypto Curr. This was in reality, its main business. The rest seemed to be smoke and mirrors. One of the most profitable segments of smoke and mirrors in history, the courses that they did sell included other areas as well, such as trading and investing the buyers of these mostly plagiarized courses were offered rewards for bringing in more participants to the courses and buyers of the course packages were to receive token.
[00:10:38] Those tokens could then be used to mine for one coins. So how did the ONECOIN exchange work? Well, the exchange for converting one coin into currencies was called the ONECOIN exchange under the acronym X coin X. Which was an internal marketplace members were able to access the exchange if they bought more than just the [00:11:00] beginner education training package.
[00:11:03] However, the reality was unlike most other crypto exchanges here, they placed selling limits on accounts, based on the level of education package purchased by January, 2017, the exchange was shut. part of what led to the investor's loss and damage and struggle is that one coin denied the majority of withdrawal requests and the exchange was the only way affiliates could cash out. 30] So when did people start to figure this out? When did people start to find, figure out that ONECOIN was infected fraud? The answer's not soon enough, obviously in 2016, questions started to come up about one. As many countries began to investigate the company, some calling it a pyramids scheme. the direct selling association in Norway called the ONECOIN fraud pyramid scheme back in March, 2016.
[00:11:57] Later that year, the Hungarian central bank [00:12:00] claimed that ONECOIN was also a pyramids scheme. by TW by 20 17, 1 coin claimed it was the first company to become licensed by the Vietnamese government and legally allowed to be used as a digital currency in Vietnam. But the Vietnam government denies that in early 2018, the Bulgarian police where this began rated the company's office, founder Roja.
[00:12:27] Disappeared in 2017. As we mentioned, when a warrant was filed for her arrest, her brother Konstantin replaced her as the face of the company at that time co-founder Greenwood. Those three that were, that were showing for, for people that are, are watching the, the video portion. Mr. Greenwood was arrested in 2018.
[00:12:49] Konstantin was ultimately arrested in 2019 but more on him and a bit and more in Greenwood in a bit., Greenwood is allegedly in discussion with authorities about a possible plea deal. [00:13:00], but at the end of the day, ONECOIN was never actively traded nor could the coins be used to purchase. So, what about the victims?
[00:13:09] What about all the people that lost their money? There were many of them several have attorneys and they've filed SU after Sue and claim after claim with the Bulgarian government, claiming that they're not doing enough to seize assets. There's a lot of civil litigation to try and seize the assets. So their losses can be mitigated one example that was made public. 27] Is a victim, Jen MCAT, when she told BBC at British broadcast company back in 2019 that she and her friends and family had thrown a quarter of a million dollars or euros away on ONECOIN. Ms. McAdam said it all started from a friend's message about this unmissable investment opportunity sitting at her computer, from Glasgow, she clicked on a link and joined one of the ONECOIN webinars.
[00:13:53] Over the next hour or so she listened carefully. As people were enthusiastic in talking about this exciting new [00:14:00] cryptocurrency, how it's could transform her fortune and transform the way that currency is used. All of them were upbeat, full of passion, very, very persuasive saying things like you're lucky that you're seeing this webinar right now.
[00:14:15] You're in such an early stage. It's gonna be just like Bitcoin, only bigger. For more on that you can check out again, the missing the missing crypto queen podcast on BBC sounds, which is a great podcast that goes in for the hunt of RJA who remains still at large today. So what about the chance that this was all a mistake? 39] she didn't just steal all this money and use it. Personal reasons, right? Like that's one of the questions that viewers have asked us., nobody's that heartless, right?, this was people's retirement funds. They're life savings after all. There's no way that, that she just used this all for a personal gain.
[00:14:54] Well, court records show the opposite. Poor records show that she lived a lavish [00:15:00] lifestyle., while it was ongoing, she steered money into almost anything from real estate in Belgrade, Serbia to racehorses in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to an oil field in Madagascar. This was an international fraud reports, say that a four bedroom luxury town home with a number of fine artworks placed in the apartment, including a rare Indy Warhol piece, was purchased by a shell company in 2016 which kept the crypto Queen's name out of the picture, but was tied to her.
[00:15:40] Right before purchasing property. She had apparently pled guilty to that German bankruptcy case that we noted. one of the other things, is that, how did the, like, how did this all get perpetuated? I mean, how did this get legitimized? Couldn't people have seen this right off the [00:16:00] bat. Well, it got street cried from, from legal.
[00:16:05] Advisors and people that went public saying that they've investigated it, they've audited it. And that it's very legitimate. I mean, in hindsight it looks so obvious to us now, but they had legal evaluations done that gave it credibility., but then there it cast shadow on the lawyers that ultimately did that. 23] So one German lawyer, , from,bred and Brock,rice health in 2014 helped legitimize the. That one coin was in fact, a cryptocurrency, even though it didn't have blockchain or any similarities to any blockchain technology., what had happened is one of the attorneys from that group said most countries have recognized.
[00:16:46] Cryptocurrencies is a bonafide commodity, which may be held and traded by their citizens. The law firm stated it at the time. And in our opinion, ONECOIN is a legitimate product limited to 2.1 [00:17:00] billion. So they had added that back in 2014, but reports show that Martin Bach, actually ultimately faced trial in monster Germany, along with two other individuals over money laundering charges that were connected to the ONECOIN pyramid scheme and Rouge.
[00:17:21] Igna. rep published, showed that bread and back actually began working with one coin and engaging in legal work for them back in 2014. So the people that were legitimizing it to the world were actually involved in it and making compensation from it. And then there were some other shocking stories that were tied in indirectly related.
[00:17:47] There was mysterious deaths of two, ONECOIN representatives and they were pretty recent in 2022. ONECOIN advocates were found dead murdered in [00:18:00] Mexico. Two promoters. Of ONECOIN were found in Maton Mexico, Oscar Bria, Ibarra, and Ignasio Ibarra. Two major promoters of one coin were kidnapped and killed according to the coin, Telegraph and Espanol.
[00:18:20] according to the report, the two men were promoting ONECOIN as a payment method for a local car firm, a local automobile company, the Latin America automobile marketing. and it was first reported by major Latin American publication LA Turra. and according to the report, their bodies were phones stuffed into suitcases and dumped in a vacant lot.
[00:18:47] the two men were apparently killed by suffocation. So what was interesting is that the one coin scam. was well known and the arrests had begun by the [00:19:00] time Oscar Brito Ibarra joined ONECOIN. So according to the article he story kind of began back in 2017 when Oscar Brito Ibarra, who was from Chile, he was a chilling citizen.
[00:19:13] First signed up for the ONECOIN scheme as an and an right. After promoting one coin for a while, Oscar Brito Ibarra reportedly got an Argentinian partner. This other gentleman who was found dead Ignasio Ibar, , involved to promote, to promote the ONECOIN by offering discounts for making purchasing vehicles with ONECOIN.
[00:19:38] According to the report. The promised cars though, were never delivered despite the two men continually to promote the scam across and throughout Latin America. Some speculate that local cartels may have been involved in the murder., there wound up being about 140 people in Argentina scammed by this, by the end of 2019, with some of [00:20:00] them having lost up to $400,000.
[00:20:04] On June 20th, 2020 Brito and ABAR traveled to Melean, Mexico. and the exact reason for the trip remains unclear, but the trip could have apparently been linked to pushing out ONECOIN., and then the bodies of the two men were found a few days later., citing a report from the U S D E a the drug enforcement administration. 28] A lot, lot to Sarah suggests that the murders could have involved local cartels that, increasingly are starting to deal with cryptocurrencies in order to launder money. So if death and cartels are not enough of a scandal, let's look at how did she wind up going on the. And being wanted and breach the FBI's most wanted list.
[00:20:51] RUJ Ignatova went underground in 2017, just at the time when law enforcement was starting to get wind of all the companies and [00:21:00] what they had been doing. And when the other governments had been declaring it as a fraud, she was due to attend an event in Lisbon, but instead she, for some reason, she boarded a plane to Athens and then disappeared.
[00:21:15] She's never been seen in public or by anyone since many think because of the money and the resources that she had, she's undergone vast amounts of plastic surgery changed to appearance., and, and at the time her, her closest confidant like her, her boyfriend at the time was even allegedly cooperating with authorities. 36] And when she discovered that that's when she took. Her brother Konstantin has since been indicted and was detained in the us after being investigated by the FBI. He was arrested on March 6th, 2019 at the Los Angeles international airport. He was charged with wire fraud, conspiracy stemming from his role.
[00:21:53], and then he was later released. From prison on a $500,000 bond, which made [00:22:00] a lot of people wonder and speculate because how could a $500,000 bond be issued? when there's $4 billion of hard earned funds and retirement funds and people's life savings. the $500,000 was paid by two people. One called Ivan Olasky, AKA Ivan, yo Kovski and a DRUGA lire, , Konstantin who ran the business for a time, right?
[00:22:32] He, this is the brother he pled guilty to multiple felonies. Later that year in 2019, he's been free on bond while he awaits sentencing. He's allegedly agreed to testify against his. And,, some of his, as they flipped him to, to go after other people, that's probably the reason, many speculate for why they, let him be released pending sentencing and his sentencing [00:23:00] continues to be delayed.
[00:23:01] It was supposed to happen in 2020 to 2021 rather. And then 22 and two. And now it's set for later on this year in 2022, the reason they say is because his inform. He's he's totally explaining everything to federal law enforcement and international law enforcement., his testimony's actually helped. 20] It helped, prove,ONECOIN lawyer, a gentleman named Mark Scott., they were able to find him guilty of fraud and Mon money launder. he received, more than 50 million in compensation for helping, the one coin scam and us marshals has se have seized his luxury automobiles mansions into yacht.
[00:23:41]that went, that, that became public, November 21st, 2019. And it described how Scott had laundered bonded approximately 400 million of ONECOIN’s proceeds. And this is shocking simply because when we think. It wasn't even a cryptocurrency. It was, [00:24:00] this is a cyber crime. Like when you think about it, this wasn't even, it was, it, it, it, it mirrors what Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos had done.
[00:24:11] Right? These are very powerful PowerPoint presentations and sales presentations with nothing essentially to back them up. And what's crazy is the scale that these criminals had been able to. Reach right. Billions of dollars notoriety. And they were, they were hiding in plain sight. They were in, in, she packed Wembly right. 36] She packed. Wembly like she had tons of, of, you know, tens of thousands of people. They had stage productions. All of this. And as viewers can see, we've posted a couple things. How victims and victim advocates were living on social media. When the brother Konstantin, was posting about traveling and not being incarcerated, pending his sentencing.
[00:24:55] And then there was Sebastian Greenwood. Karl Sebastian Greenwood, a [00:25:00] marketing specialist for ONECOIN. He even still has a LinkedIn page for Christ's sake. And he's currently facing jail time in Manhattan. He was the public face of ONECOIN and ONELIFE. He was the one at stage center of ONECOIN onstage. He was the one that could translate all of the hype and all of the brand image that they had created.
[00:25:28], and he has just been unstoppable even since he was dubbed by law enforcement as the public face of ONECOIN and ONE LIFE, the companies that ran this scheme. He reportedly was in plea deal talks. But I don't know whether that fell through or not because he has a pending trial that continues to get continued.
[00:25:54] But what was shocking is he's still been masterminding things while still in [00:26:00] jail. In fact, he was able to move and access millions of dollars in jail, and he has connections all over. A lawyer representing the victims, Jonathan Levy, reported in several articles (some on bitcoin.com, , some through the BBC), Karl Greenwood has been masterminding things and was even able to do the following:check this out.
[00:26:25] He was able to transfer 20 million dollars worth of funds, that should be going to the victims, away and transfer it into accounts that he either owns or has control over, all while still in jail. Apparently what happened there was a statement released November 24th, 2021, where the attorney Levy explained. Greenwood who's in the Manhattan metropolitan correction center, right?
[00:26:54] Downtown New York was able to pull off this massive transfer of 20 million. [00:27:00] I mean, Significant amount of money gets traced and there's forms that need to be filled out, et cetera. This guy's able to do it from a, from a, a, a cell phone that somebody gives him while he's still in jail., he said that Greenwood was aided by a network of lawyers and given a contraband cell phone.
[00:27:22], the attorney said the failure of the sec and other regulators to confiscate the assets. And apparently there's 200 and. Thousand Bitcoins that ONECOIN has the private keys to think of how much a Bitcoin trades, where it's traded, if the, the, the, it, it fluctuates daily, but it's anywhere between 20 and 30,000 OS for one Bitcoin.
[00:27:44] And this guy apparently has access or they've had access to 230,000 of them., so apparently that money is helping him, , still be able to, , access some of these things. The attorney state said in a. [00:28:00] that day, , back in November of 2021, he said, I am shocked and dismayed there's been no attempt to confiscate one coin assets.
[00:28:08] We know that vast amounts of cash real estate and cryptocurrency have been unlawfully obtained. The brazen acts of Carl Sebastian Greenwood from his jail cell only confirm our worst fears that with every passing day, billions of dollars of assets are being placed beyond the hope of recovery. It's a remarkable. 28], and, and we can only hope that they get, , , some, some traction in collecting some of those, , stolen, stolen assets. I mean, to pull this off, to pull out a transfer of $20 million while in jail for this crime is UN. It's unbelievable. Apparently there were numerous powers of attorney that were issued in Dubai, , in order for, for something like this to occur.
[00:28:54], and he was able, he's, Greenwood's been able to successfully manage, to get banks, to unfreeze certain bank [00:29:00] accounts that held hundreds of millions of dollars from ONECOIN. And then he allegedly used a mobile phone. That's now in the possession of the us law enforcement to remotely execute this 20 million dollar transfer.
[00:29:14] So meanwhile, the attorney hopes that the release of information like that and like this can, about what Greenwood was able to do while still in prison can help force regulators in the us in Bulgaria and even Dubai to finally act against these mastermind today, RJA, Ignatova sits on the FBI's 10 most wanted list.
[00:29:38] That is a very big. It's basically a giant publicity stunt and a way to get people like us that can draw attention. So we have the most wanted, poster up on our, video presentation right now when the FBI placed. Rouge Ignatova on America's [00:30:00] FBI 10 most wanted list this past June of 2022, FBI agent and spokesperson.
[00:30:07] Mike Driscoll stated that our hope in that naming her to the top 10 most wanted fugitive list will draw attention to her and her alleged crimes. NBC news reported in June, that at a, press conference, Damien Williams, us attorney for the Southern district of New York called her quote, an international fugitive who allegedly mastermind a worldwide fraud.
[00:30:34] He said she now sits side by side on the top 10 list with cartel leaders, murderers and terrorists. And he said, that's no accident. The FBI has a anonymous tip line. You can submit a tip online at tips dot FBI dot the FBI. Most wanted list is online available as well as posted here in our [00:31:00] video feed. If you have any information, please, one intended your local field agent, your local field office.
[00:31:07] Why don't you get the local number wherever you reside. We hope you enjoyed the true cybercrime story of the crypto. Hi, Cybercrime Junkies. Thanks for listening.
Mark Mosher:Got a question you want us to address on an episode, reach out to us@cybercrimejunkies.com. We explore why cybercrime grows daily, how it is funded, productized, and organized, how to protect yourself and where cyber crime goes to hide.
[00:31:33] And thanks for being a cyber crime junkie.