The former head of legal and compliance at OneCoin faces up to 10 years in prison for her role in the $4 billion crypto trading scheme.
OneCoin Co-Founder Karl Greenwood Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison
U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos also ordered Greenwood to forfeit $300 million, the approximate amount he pocketed from the scheme.
OneCoin head of compliance facing 40-year sentence after US extradition
The alleged fraudster was accused of doing the “exact opposite” of her job title, which was to ensure OneCoin was complying with laws.
Ep07- Moneyland – Companion Guide For BBC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen” Podcast
What’s Moneyland? That’s what the first half of this “The Missing Cryptoqueen” episode is about. The second part is about Frankfurt, the city where Jamie and Georgia think that Dr. Ruja might be hiding. In any case, Moneyland is that mythical place where the money that millionaires and corporate entities want to disappear goes. The concept comes from british journalist Oliver Bullough, who “has spent many years investigating the ways illicit money flows around the world, including in Eastern Europe.” He’s this episode’s star guest.
The Frankfurt part, however, is the most exciting segment of the whole podcast so far. The production team really stepped up their investigative game and got closer to Dr. Ruja than any police department ever will. We know our summaries are phenomenal, but we recommend that everyone listens to that second part at least.
Remember, you can download episodes directly from the BBC, or listen to “The Missing Cryptoqueen” through Apple, Spotify, or iVoox.
In any case, let’s go to Moneyland!
About “The Missing Cryptoqueen,” Episode Seven – “In Plain Sight”
Is Dr. Ruja alive? Before even mentioning Moneyland, producer Georgia Catt confirms a possible Dr. Ruja sighting to presenter Jamie Bartlett. The staff of an Athens restaurant remembers someone with Dr. Ruja’s characteristics as part of a party of six. What they’re not sure about is exactly *when* did this happen. Interesting. The possibility of a Dr. Ruja running around Europe might’ve been the catalyst for the Frankfurt part of the episode. But first, let’s get to Moneyland.
After hearing the basic facts of the OneCoin case, journalist Oliver Bullough tells Jamie that once upon a time “Albania descended into anarchy because of a pyramid scheme.” As the crypto world has confirmed lately, these scams can be dangerous. Then, Bullough explains what Moneyland is. Rich and smart people can construct their “assets in such a way that they become invisible.” They can still use them to “buy political influence and nice houses and yachts.”
When it comes to other people trying to find those assets, though, they turn invisible. So, “that’s what Moneyland is, Moneyland is the place where these assets go.” This breaks Jamie, who asks if there’s zero chance of finding them. Bullough tries to cheer him up by saying “It’s not zero chance. It’s, yeah. I mean, it’s been very well hidden, right?” And that’s not the most depressing part of the episode. After that, they inform us that the UK has stopped their investigation into OneCoin. They just gave up.
FTT price chart for 11/18/2022 on FTX | Source: FTT/USD on TradingView.com
Moneyland Leads To Frankfurt
When things look darker, “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s” production team gets into high gear. They turn their investigating arm up a few notches and focus on the Internet. “We put so much online now, and that information can betray us. And that’s what took us to somewhere we think Dr. Ruja might be.“ That somewhere is Frankfurt. Our heroes determine that Dr. Ruja’s ex-husband and her hidden daughter live in the city. Plus, her best friend seems to have visited Frankfurt recently.
They get there and they find nothing, not a single trace. This part is excruciating. However, it leads Jamie and Georgia to a high-luxury neighborhood that feels like the place Dr. Ruja would live. This is where Monelyland leads to. In there, they find a charismatic but annoying postman that might remember the name Ignatova. They leave that storyline open and “The Missing Cryptoqueen” returns to England.
To finish the episode off, Jamie has a very interesting discussion with Cameron, “a UK-based OneCoin promoter.” Is he a true believer or is he just defending an extremely lucrative business? Cameron goes all in and carries the OneCoin party line to the very end. Wow. This might be the most surprising part of the whole episode.
Quotes From Episode Seven of “The Missing Cryptoqueen”:
Oliver Bullough, explaining how money can disappear:
“If you are rich enough and well advised enough or clever enough, you construct your assets in such a way that they become invisible. They still exist, you can still use them to buy things, you can still use them to buy political influence and nice houses and yachts. But when it comes from someone trying to find them, whether that’s a journalist or a police officer, the assets are invisible. And so that’s what Moneyland is, Moneyland is the place where these assets go.”
Jamie Barlett on what led them to Frankfurt:
“There’s one place we haven’t looked, not really looked. And it’s probably the most obvious place of all, the Internet. We put so much online now, and that information can betray us. And that’s what took us to somewhere we think Dr. Ruja might be. Not Athens, Frankfurt. It took weeks of extremely boring internet research and painstakingly going back through everything we’ve learned so far.”
Extra Material, about “Moneyland”:
In The Guardian’s review of Oliver Bullough’s “Moneyland,” they quote a metaphorical definition of the novel term:
“He conceives of it as a secret, parallel world, almost like something from a fairytale: “The very wealthiest people … have tunnelled into this new land that lies beneath all our nation states, where borders have vanished. They move their money … and themselves wherever they wish, picking and choosing which countries’ laws they wish to live by.”
The Guardian also says:
“He is surprisingly successful at getting some of the architects of the offshore world to open up, and is sensitive to the fact that some of its users have good reason to avoid governments, such as rich dissidents fearing the politically motivated confiscation of their assets. He also accepts an argument frequently put to him in notorious tax havens: that wealthier, less criticised countries such as Britain have been equally involved in building and maintaining Moneyland.”
Episode Credits
Presenter: Jamie Bartlett
Producer: Georgia Catt
Story consultant: Chris Berube
Editor: Philip Sellars
Original music and sound design: Phil Channell
Original music and vocals: Dessislava Stefanova and the London Bulgarian Choir
Previous Companion Guides For BBC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen” Podcast:
Featured Image: The Missing Cryptoqueen’s logo, from the BBC | Charts by TradingView
Ep06- DealShaker – Companion Guide For BBC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen” Podcast
Believe it or not, the DealShaker marketplace is still working. The commerce arm of the OneCoin empire, DealShaker provided a clear and verifiable use case for OneCoin as a currency. The token was real because you could use it to buy things in a specific e-commerce store. Oh, those were the days. The greatest thing about exploring OneCoin and Dr. Ruja’s story is that it reflects how naive the crypto world actually was just a few years ago. In many ways, it still is.
In “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s” sixth episode, we travel to the past. It’s titled “The Überflieger” referring to a “high-flying” person. That’s how teachers of the past described Dr. Ruja, who was definitely the star in all of her classes and was respected and hated for it. What else can Jamie and Georgia learn about Ruja Ignatova by tracing her steps? Let’s find out.
Remember, you can download episodes directly from the BBC, or listen to “The Missing Cryptoqueen” through Apple, Spotify, or iVoox.
About “The Missing Cryptoqueen,” Episode Six – “The Überflieger”
Our blast from the past episode starts in 2009, five years before OneCoin and DealShaker. Bitcoin was entering the scene and so was Dr. Ruja, who bought a factory in Germany. Jamie and Georgia visit the site in 2019 and interview the survivors of that story. They tell them that Ruja Ignatova got there, impressed everybody, and made a lot of promises that she didn’t keep. After that, she disappeared, effectively rug-pulling everybody. Interesting fact, both her father and her mother worked at the factory. Which suggests Ruja Ignatova is a family woman.
When Dr. Ruja disappeared, the factory offices were broken into and a lot of documents went missing, along with her. The factory workers that the podcast interviewed all seem to think that this was staged and that Dr. Ruja took and destroyed some important documents. “It’s exactly the same story,” one of them says comparing OneCoin and DealShaker to the factory in question. When things got tough, Ruja Ignatova sold the company and disappeared. The factory remains closed to this day.
In the next section’s second quote, you’ll sense the magnitude of that first case against Dr. Ruja. She paid the fine and kept it pushing. And, according to the factory workers, she learned that the next time she was going to have to disappear for real.
Quotes From “The Missing Cryptoqueen,” EpisodeSix – “The Überflieger”
In what appears a diary entry, we learn about the young Ruja Ignatova:
“Ruja was always friendly to everyone. She was always well behaved and cheerful, and the teachers were deeply fond of her. She doesn’t drink and she would never degrade herself to eating pizza. Her favorite classes were “p,” she was faultless, and now and then she likes “ari.” Generally, she got on very well with her colleagues. Stop. Maybe we should stick to the truth. Okay, fine. Maybe I did take pleasure in tormenting some students. I was always looking for the chance to spread new amusing stories about them.”
This quote summarizes the consequences of Ruja’s first fraud:
“This time, the law caught up with Dr. Ruja. In 2016, she was convicted in a German court for several crimes. Intentional breach of duty in the event of insolvency, fraud, withholding an embezzlement of employees’ wages, and violation of accounting duties, She received a 14-month suspended sentence and an €18,000 fine. The local newspaper reported that Ruja reappeared to attend the ruling and showed no emotion when the judgment was passed down. She quietly slipped out and returned to Bulgaria, and carried on with OneCoin as if nothing had happened.”
More About Dr. Ruja’s Past
Later in the episode, Jamie and Georgia confirm that Ruja really got a PHD. “She’s smart,” Georgia says. Then, Multi-Level Marketing makes a second appearance. We learn that in 2014, Ruja Ignatova tried to sell… wait for it… bitcoin using MLM techniques. The producers introduce Sebastian Greenwood, a Multi-Level Marketing expert that seems to have created the Dr. Ruja character with Ignatova. She had the charisma, he had the technique. They just needed a product they could control.
Last but not least, we meet Duncan. He once was an integral part of the OneLife organization and it’s the mind behind DealShaker. He says everything in there is rubbish and challenges Jamie to find five things he wants and can pay in OneCoin only. Jamie goes through DealShaker and realizes the already shady characters that sell products through the platform mostly want Euros. Is DealShaker really a OneCoin market?
At the end of the episode, a private detective that the production hired apparently found a lady that could be Ruja Ignatova in Athens. Could it be?
BTC price chart for 11/03/2022 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Extra Material: OneCoin Responds To The FCA
Approximately six years ago, the Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom issued a warning against OneCoin. The company responded and NewsBTC reported the story:
“In the statement, OneCoin has called itself a global software and technology company with offices in Bulgaria, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates. The company has also described OneCoin has a digital currency sharing few features with existing cryptocurrencies. These similarities are confined to the maintenance of all transaction records on a database.
The digital currency company, in the last paragraph of the statement, expresses its full cooperation,
“OneCoin is committed to following good business practices and the relevant rules and regulations in the countries in which it operates. It will co-operate fully with the authorities in pursuit of this objective.”
Episode Credits
Presenter: Jamie Bartlett
Producer: Georgia Catt
Story consultant: Chris Berube
Editor: Philip Sellars
Original music and sound design: Phil Channell
Original music and vocals: Dessislava Stefanova and the London Bulgarian Choir
Previous Companion Guides For BBC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen” Podcast:
Featured Image: The Missing Cryptoqueen logo by BBC | Charts by TradingView
Ep05- MLM – Companion Guide For BBC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen” Podcast
It was about time that MLM made an appearance. Multi-Level Marketing explains a lot about the OneCoin story. In this ONE-HOUR episode of “The Missing Cryptoqueen,” we’ll learn about the secret ingredient that catapulted Dr. Ruja from the millions to the billions. We’ll meet interesting people and the plot will thicken. Also, the size of the OneCoin scam will increase significantly. This thing gets bigger by the episode, which is what makes the show so entertaining. What a clusterfuck this was.
It begins by answering the question posed in episode 4. Could an unrecognizable version of Dr. Ruja have been in attendance at the Miss OneLife beauty pageant? The production team shows a UK plastic surgeon pictures from the event. There was a person with OneCoin’s main directors that they suspect might’ve been Ruja Ignatova. He hesitates, but when Jamie Bartlett tells him that the person they’re looking for is a billionaire with an infinite budget, he changes his mind. “It’s possible, those things can be changed,” he says.
That being settled, let’s get into MLM.
Remember, you can download episodes directly from the BBC, or listen to “The Missing Cryptoqueen” through Apple, Spotify, or iVoox.
About MLM And “The Missing Cryptoqueen,” Episode Five – “What Dreams May Come”
This episode’s protagonist was the #1 seller of OneCoin at one point. He’s a professional multi-level marketer with an army of professional MLM salespersons at his disposal. His house is called “What Dreams May Come,” which inspired the episode’s title. This man’s tongue is the main reason this episode is one hour long. His stories are phenomenal, everyone should listen to them. Especially considering we’re going to skip them and stick to the core story.
So, network marketing, MLM, or multi-level marketing is the missing ingredient. When this man’s company started working for OneCoin, they put an army of top-level marketers to push the product. And it sold like hotcakes. “In the first year, it made more millionaires than Amway ever did in their 75 years of history,” he claims. The kicker to this part of the story is that the MLM marketer alleges that he believed Dr. Ruja and put more money into OneCoin than anyone on earth.
According to the released FBI documents we found last time, Dr. Ruja and company called this operation “The B*tch of Wall Street meets MLM.” You can’t make this stuff up. In an archival audio file, we hear her announce that OneCoin was going to inflate the supply 10X and the crowd cheered. Then, contradicting every economic law, she told them that the more OneCoin there were, the best it was for them. They Cheered. Then, by decree, she doubled the amount of OneCoin everyone had in their vaults. People lost their minds.
Besides MLM, two of the most mind-blowing revelations the episode contains are in the following quotes.
Quotes From “The Missing Cryptoqueen,” Episode Five – “What Dreams May Come”
Tim Curry, OneCoin critic, said:
“The math of this is just completely ridiculous. Every minute 50,000 OneCoins are mined, right? Now, the value of those at today’s “price” of €29.95 would be €1.5 million a minute, is what they’re claiming right? And per hour, that’s €89.85 million. And then, per day, they’re creating €2.15 billion out of thin air, right? And so, the logic of it is just ridiculous. Now, if you follow how many coins have been mined for the first quote “Blockchain.” And then, from October 1 to present, it’s nearing about 70 billion coins. If we take 70 billion coins and multiply that by the internal price of 29.95, you’re looking at, I think it’s like $1.8 trillion or $2.1 trillion. Which is greater than all of the US dollars in circulation on earth, which is about $1.67 trillion.”
About the fact that OneCoin did have a certificate saying they were Shariah-compliant that was issued from Pakistan, Amjad Mohammed, scholar from Bradford and OneCoin critic, said:
“What Sharia compliant is supposed to mean, is that somebody has carried out thorough research, gone through all the conditions, gone through all the terms with a fine tooth comb. There was no evidence of any research whatsoever. It was just a blank certificate saying “this is okay.” Amjad issued a fatwa against this, a ruling that OneCoin was not halal. And then, “within weeks, the conditions which I had highlighted as being problematic changed. So, clearly, somebody was keeping a watching brief of what I was doing because I only picked a couple in the initial fatwa. However, OneCoin does not actually exist. So, I can easily make any form of conditions for something, when the actual thing does not exist. It’s a fraud.”
MLM And The Perfect Scam
Near the end, Jamie Bartlett reflects on the story so far:
“There’s something strangely beautiful about the OneCoin scam. It’s like the perfect scam. It combines the hype and terminology of cryptocurrencies and the hard-nosed MLM selling of people like Igor Alberts. It uses glamorous events and household brands to create the veneer of respectability and protects it with a religious-like zeal. And who could ever doubt the intentions of the trustworthy Dr. Ruja.”
The cult-like aspects of the whole ordeal are ever-present in this episode. The whistleblowers tell the producers about the death threats they get like it’s nothing. For people inside of OneCoin, they’re traitors of the highest order. For these religious zealots, Dr. Ruja is still running the whole operation from the shadows, and the people that want to silence her are just jealous “haters.”
Before finishing, Jamie Bartlett explores the idea that, when it mixed with MLM, the OneCoin operation got too big. Maybe Dr. Ruja was scared, as she seems to show in an alleged email. Apparently, this was supposed to be a little scam, but it caught fire. And Dr. Ruja’s backers were not going to let a golden goose die.
Episode Credits
Presenter: Jamie Bartlett
Producer: Georgia Catt
Story consultant: Chris Berube
Editor: Philip Sellars
Original music and sound design: Phil Channell
Original music and vocals: Dessislava Stefanova and the London Bulgarian Choir
Previous Companion Guides For BBC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen” Podcast:
Ep04- OneLife – Companion Guide For BBC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen” Podcast
What does a OneLife-produced event look like? Is the organization that supports the OneCoin community competent enough to produce a beauty pageant? The answer to those questions might surprise you. For this fourth episode, Jamie Bartlett and Georgia Catt go into the lion’s den. They travel to Bucharest, Romania, and witness the Miss OneLife coronation. Apparently, the event had some of “the world’s most famous brands as sponsors.” However, as it happens with everything Dr. Ruja related, things are not what they seem.
This episode’s guest star is Christi Calina, who’s a OneLife “independent marketing associate” and one of the event’s producers. Since the man’s ghosting them, Jamie and Georgia ambush him at a OneLife event in the same city. The conference “looks like the real deal, just like OneCoin,” Jamie evaluates. There, they get access to the Miss OneLife event and things take a turn for the mysterious.
Remember, you can download episodes directly from the BBC, or listen to “The Missing Cryptoqueen” through Apple, Spotify, or iVoox.
About “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s” Episode Four – “Miss OneLife”
In this episode, Jamie and Georgia go through the charges against Konstantin Ignatov, Dr. Ruja’s brother. They contain some of the FBI documents about the case and include emails between Dr. Ruja and “other top leaders” of the OneLife organization. In those, the people allegedly discuss how the scam works in detail. If those are real, there’s no doubt that OneCoin was a very deliberate scam from the very beginning. They even discuss how to fake the mining of the supposed cryptocurrency.
In those emails, Dr. Ruja discusses a possible exit strategy and proposes they could “take the money and run and blame someone else for this.”
Later on, the FBI claims Dr. Ruja is “directly associated with significant players in the Easter European organized crime.”
It’s important to know that OneCoin disputes all of these allegations. We included part of their denial in the quotes section. We also included concrete information about Dr. Ruja’s disappearance and a new factor that might explain why she fled at the time she did.
BTC price chart for 10/25/2022 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
The Miss OneLife Beauty Pageant
Our heroes go into the eye of the storm. They can barely enter the premises because everyone in the OneLife organization knows exactly who they are. They don’t blend in. Everyone is “smartly dressed.” Bottles of Moet and cigars abound. The production is slick. A stage comes down from the ceiling and Jamie loses his mind. In the end, they both admit that the OneLife organization can throw a hell of an event. It was boring, though. And it doesn’t look like any cryptocurrency-related function that the podcast host has ever attended.
“OneCoin is still going and there’s a lot of money here,” Jamie says before fleeing the event.
Back in London, the producers fact-check everything that happened. The famous brands that were supposedly attached to the Miss OneLife pageant deny sponsorship. They’ve never heard of the event. Then, they contact Forbes and the magazine denies that Dr. Ruja was ever on the cover like the organization made seem in their promotional material. Then, they check on her education claims. As it turns out, Dr. Ruja did go to Oxford and got the degree she claims to have.
To finish the episode off, Jamie interviews Miss OneLife UK. She gives them peripheral information, like the event’s ticketing wasn’t open to the public and one of the prizes was a gift card for cosmetic surgery. Then, Jamie mentions Dr. Ruja. She says that she heard someone important was at the event, but couldn’t remember if it was her.
Is it possible that Dr. Ruja was in attendance at the Miss OneLife event? Apparently, “she’s unrecognizable now.”
This story gets more fascinating by the minute.
Quotes From “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s” Episode Four – “Miss OneLife”
OneCoin’s statement:
“OneCoin disputes all allegations. To our claim that OneCoin is not a cryptocurrency and that its nominal price is not determined by demand and supply, but is manipulated and set internally, they said: “OneCoin verifiably fulfills all criteria of the definition of cryptocurrency, and also those of a transparent pricing that is in line with the common market”. The BBC podcast series, they say, “is based on testimonials of haters, former employees who were either fired or disgracefully dismissed for internal company violations, intellectual property theft, and other violations. Thus, the series will not present any truthful information and cannot be considered objective, nor unbiased.”
Concrete information about Dr. Ruja’s disappearance, and a new factor that might explain why she fled:
“The FBI files also contained valuable new information about Dr. Ruja’s disappearance. “Bulgarian travel records show that on or about October 25th, 2017, Ruja flew on Ryanair from Sofia, Bulgaria to Athens, Greece.” Dr. Ruja was last seen in Sozopol, in around July 2017. That was on her private yacht, the Davina, the one we saw. On October 7th, she then failed to turn up at a OneCoin event in Lisbon. But now we know that her last known whereabouts was in fact Athens on 25th October 2017. And there’s some more clues here.
Last week, I said that the US authorities charged Dr. Ruja in absentia in March 2019. That’s not the whole story. We’ve learned that Dr. Ruja was actually indicted on 12th October 2017, but this indictment was sealed until March 2019. It was just two weeks after that first indictment that Dr. Ruja vanished. Is it possible she could have been tipped off?”
Extra Material And Episode Credits
As you probably know if you’ve gotten this far in the series, Dr. Ruja is on the FBI’s most-wanted list. The text under her name says:
“Ruja Ignatova is wanted for her alleged participation in a large-scale fraud scheme. Beginning in approximately 2014, Ignatova and others are alleged to have defrauded billions of dollars from investors all over the world. Ignatova was the founder of OneCoin Ltd., a Bulgaria-based company that marketed a purported cryptocurrency. In order to execute the scheme, Ignatova allegedly made false statements and representations to individuals in order to solicit investments in OneCoin. She allegedly instructed victims to transmit investment funds to OneCoin accounts in order to purchase OneCoin packages, causing victims to send wire transfers representing these investments. Throughout the scheme, OneCoin is believed to have defrauded victims out of more than $4 billion.”
And finally, the episode’s credits:
Presenter: Jamie Bartlett
Producer: Georgia Catt
Story consultant: Chris Berube
Editor: Philip Sellars
Original music and sound design: Phil Channell
Original music and vocals: Dessislava Stefanova and the London Bulgarian Choir
Previous Companion Guides For BBC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen” Podcast:
Featured Image: The Missing Cryptoqueen’s logo from the BBC | Charts by TradingView
Ep03- OneCoin – Companion Guide For BBC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen” Podcast
Good news! Since OneCoin is back on the news and “The Missing Cryptoqueen” already released an 11th episode, proving that they’re back for real, we’re going to double down on our efforts. Starting today, we’ll summarize two episodes a week to catch up with the new developments in Dr. Ruja’s case. We hit the nail on the head on this one, and there’s nothing left to do but let the roulette roll and see where the OneCoin story takes us.
In this episode, we learn that OneCoin’s internal slogan was “the greatest company ever” and Jamie Bartlett travels to Sofia, Bulgaria, to look at Dr. Ruja’s properties. This episode is free of mafia insinuations, it deals with the cultic aspects of OneCoin’s entrepreneurial culture instead. We’re also able to put a number on how big of a scam OneCoin really was. SPOILER ALERT: It was at least €4B big.
Remember, you can download episodes directly from the BBC, or listen to “The Missing Cryptoqueen” through Apple, Spotify, or iVoox.
About OneCoin And “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s” Episode Three
The most exciting thing about “The Missing Cryptoqueen” is the sense of immediacy it conveys. It’s a living and breathing podcast. The story was happening all around Jamie Bartlett and the team. The OneCoin people react to “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s” creation and, through social media, attack the creators with everything they have. And the whole scene is part of the podcast. And this is just episode three. In the end, they even ask for the audience to call and tip them about Dr. Ruja’s whereabouts.
This episode starts with Konstantin Ignatov, Dr. Ruja’s younger brother, personal assistant, and heir to the OneCoin crown. He was arrested by the FBI and charged with money laundering and fraud. The authorities had already declared OneCoin a fraud, even. Surprisingly, when Bartlett and the team visit the OneCoin headquarters, they realize that the company is still “open for business.” People are still buying OneCoin despite the fact that one of their leaders is on the run and the other was arrested.
That leads us to the cult-like aspects of the operation. A faith-like belief justifies the disappearance of the leaders as a conspiracy to stop OneCoin. In the quote below, you will feel the silence while reading the description of the organization’s offices. You’ll feel the Dr. Ruja worship. It’s just one step away from religion and very near a cult. Jamie Bartlett describes OneCoin as “less a cryptocurrency and more like a belief system.” An expert in that field corroborates the hypothesis.
BTC price chart for 10/20/2022 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
The Devastation That They Caused
At one point we, once again, listen to Dr. Ruja’s own voice saying the crypto scammers’ slogan. “In two years, no one will talk about bitcoin.” If you ever hear that, run. In the second episode, we figured out that OneCoin called the critics “haters.” In this one, we learn that the investors and employees are instructed to keep away from them Scientology-style. Another surprising fact is that the second term OneCoin uses the most to describe its critics is “bitcoiner.” Those pesky bitcoiners, always causing trouble.
We learn about the scale of the devastation that Dr. Ruja caused by hearing about the OneCoin Victims Support Group. The victims are broken, they’ve lost everything and then some. We also learn about the scale of the scam by way of a report/ database that producer Georgia Catt got her hands on. From all over the world, the organization was getting €60M a week. From August 2014 to March 2017, OneCoin’s revenue was over €4B. Over €100M were from the UK alone. And that’s where the report stops, the organization was still making money left and right.
Quotes From “The Missing Cryptoqueen ’s” Episode Three – “More Than Just A Coin”
An anonymous witness describing the OneCoin offices:
“At its peak, it was about 50 people working in the Sofia office. Ruja’s office is on the 4th floor. You never saw her without the gypsy earrings, the gowns, the jewelry, everything. Even when she’s just working in the office. Inside the Sofia office, the crypto center is where members of the OneLife network are allowed to meet members of the Sofia staff who are important. If you are out of favor, they won’t let you in, or they’ll keep you sitting there the whole day, waiting.
It’s set up almost like a cathedral. You don’t speak out loud, you whisper to each other. It’s all set in dark tones, everything is gilded. There was a big cardboard cutout of Ruja. You see people touching it and doing that stupid OneCoin sign like it’s an icon. It’s gone now because it eventually fell apart because too many people were touching it. Dr. Ruja! Dr. Ruja! The biggest insult that you can give OneLife is to say: “that’s not Dr. Ruja’s vision.”
Bitcoin-enthusiast Timothy Curry, describing the cult of personality behind Dr. Ruja:
“There were many cultish things that the company did. The repetitive indoctrination. If you look at the top leaders, the way they dress, the way that they showed things off. Ceremonial things, almost like, especially on stage. Everything, from the musical introductions to Ruja, to the theatrics, they really did create a worship behind her.”
OneCoin Material And Episode Credits
Six years ago, while OneCoin conquered the world, NewsBTC quoted the infamous Roger Ver speaking on the case. Then known as a “bitcoin evangelist,” the controversial figure denounced OneCoin for what it is:
“In a recent interview, the owner of Bitcoin.com says he believes OneCoin is a fraud, and that investors should always be wary of new coins and read up before they put their money in things they don’t understand:
“There is never a cryptocurrency without a wallet. This sounds like more evidence of its fraudulent nature. OneCoin isn’t traded on a single exchange anywhere in the world as far as I know.”
OneCoin has been around for over two years, but questions surrounding its authenticity continue to plague the Internet.”
Say what you will about Roger Ver, but the man was right on the money on this one.
And finally, the episode’s credits:
Presenter: Jamie Bartlett
Producer: Georgia Catt
Story consultant: Chris Berube
Editor: Philip Sellars
Original music and sound design: Phil Channell
Original music and vocals: Dessislava Stefanova and the London Bulgarian Choir
Previous Companion Guides For BBC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen” Podcast:
Featured Image: The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast logo from the BBC | Charts by TradingView
‘Cryptoqueen’ associates face German court for role in $4B OneCoin scheme
The whereabouts of “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova are still unknown but the charges against OneCoin members are starting to pile up.
Jury Convicts Crypto Ponzi Scheme OneCoin’s Lawyer on Fraud Charges
A Manhattan court convicted Mark Scott, OneCoin’s lawyer, for fraud after he laundered $400 million for the crypto Ponzi scheme.
Alleged Multibillion-Dollar Crypto Pyramid Scheme OneCoin Sued by Former Investor
The cryptocurrency investment scheme OneCoin, widely claimed to be a fraud, is being sued by a former investor over her losses.
A Multibillion-Dollar Cryptocurrency Based on ‘Lies’: US Arrests Alleged OneCoin Leader
Konstantin Ignatov, one of the heads of the infamous OneCoin pyramid scheme, has been arrested on wire fraud charges.
