Missing “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova may be hiding in Russia to avoid criminal charges, according to a BBC investigative journalist specializing in Kremlin affairs.
Ignatova was a Bulgarian-born entrepreneur who founded a fraudulent cryptocurrency ‘pyramid scheme’ known as OneCoin, which is thought to have scammed investors out of roughly $4 billion. She disappeared in 2017 and hasn’t been publicly located since.
Yoran Tsalov, who also worked for Bellingcat, argued that Ignatova “has been linked to multiple people and interests connected to the Kremlin” in an email shared with Decrypt.
Tsalov claims these links were confirmed by Ignatova’s former security adviser Frank Schneider during a BBC interview with him, done as part of the outlet's Missing CryptoQueen investigation and podcast series.
Schneider is a former spy for Switzerland, who later founded a private investigation firm which was hired by OneCoin. He was put under house arrest in France, due to his connection with the operation, before going on the run in 2023.
In addition, Tsalov claims that the ongoing BBC investigation established that some of the companies that laundered money via OneCoin were connected to the former pro-Russian president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich.
In 2019, Yanukovich was sentenced absentia to 13 years in jail on treason charges by Ukraine’s highest court. He is widely considered to have had a sprawling web of offshore assets acquired due to corruption.
Yanukovich himself now lives his life in exile in Russia.
Tsalov highlights that Ignatova’s security adviser Frank Schneider himself evaded extradition.
“If he can orchestrate his disappearance from France where he was under house arrest, awaiting extradition to the U.S., then certainly he can organize hers from Bulgaria," he argued.
This is the personal opinion of Tsalov, and is not necessarily shared by the BBC team that conducted the Missing CryptoQueen investigation into the fraudster.
“It is much easier for the criminal actors involved in this affair to keep her alive and, via her, manage their assets,” Tsalov added.
There are countless other theories about the location of the missing “Cryptoqueen." German newspaper Der Spiegel also published an article in November 2024, stating that German authorities are looking for a woman in South Africa. Meanwhile, some Bulgarian police reports claim she may have been dismembered on a yacht and thrown into the Ionian Sea.
Many other high-profile wanted people hiding in Russia have avoided extradition requests for years.
Renowned US government whistleblower Edward Snowden has lived in Russia since 2013.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.