How the Cryptoqueen Stole Billions | Investigators

1 two 3 Applause [Applause] please within 18 months a million people or so from 175 countries had invested something like 4 billion EUR into one coin her cryptocurrency thinking they'd got on to the next big thing it is really a pleasure for me to be here one and a half years after we launched our cryptocurrency one coin she traveled the world speaking at huge concert Arenas and venues and Seminars the sky really is the limit for us we want to be the number one cryptocurrency out there and then in October 2017 do roua boards a Ryan Air flight from sofhia Bulgaria to Athens Greece and disappears Into Thin Air and he never seen again ignatova founded and ran one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history sing a fake cryptocurrency called onecoin and raking in billions of dollars from her victims the whole thing was fake except for the billions of Euros that had been invested we're trying to figure out where did she go what happened and where is she now I'm Jamie Bartlett I'm a technology writer and for the last four years I've been investigating the story of one coin and its founder Dr rouer igna for the podcast and book The Missing crypto Queen Dr rouer igna is a Bulgarian German businesswoman who in 2014 announced to the world that she had created the next Bitcoin the next cryptocurrency that was going to be bigger than Bitcoin it was going to revolutionize Global Finance she meets up with a man who specializes in multi-level marketing called Sebastian Greenwood and multi level marketing is a sales technique whereby you sell products to your friends and family and make a small commission and then you recruit your friends and family to sell to their friends and family and you will make commission on everyone that you recruit or is recruited by people you recruit and so it forms this sort of gigantic pyramid of Sellers and in 2014 they decide to launch one coin and it starts off very very slow very very small no one's sure whether it's going to take off or not the thing about multi-level marketing is everything depends on momentum and within months a billion EUR has been invested into one coin that's how fast it it took off Dr rouer made sure that she looked the part she did have incredible impeccable academic background she appeared on the front cover of Forbes Magazine except it wasn't the front cover of Forbes Magazine it was the front cover of Forbes Bulgaria but in fact it was a piece of sponsored content that she paid for a few weeks later she spoke at an event hosted by The Economist magazine and she made sure that the photograph of her standing next to the logo of the economist was in all of her presentations as one coin grows sort of Dr rouer herself grows with it she's seen at all the lavish parties she's hanging out with politicians she's wearing million dooll necklaces and soon enough she starts calling herself the crypto Queen so her birthday parties were always very very luxurious I mean the most expensive pink champagne and free Cuban cigars and Sushi and everything you can imagine in 2016 her birthday party was held at the Victoria and Albert Museum a huge expense she had Tom Jones perform a private concert this is Dr Ro ignatova I'm very pleased to see you I'm now in the new onecoin office please join me all in the the global event we have very very good news for all onecoin members for all onecoin users and for all of you it will be a very very very interesting and inspiring event probably the most important single event she ever did was at London's Wembley arena in the summer of 2016 firstly it was a huge event there were 3,000 people there she comes on the stage very very well choreographed to this girl is on fire by Alicia Keys which was you know one of the songs she liked to play when she entered the stage with one coin behind her pyate Technics and Flames rouer says to the crowd okay I'm I'm going to increase the number of coins from 2.1 billion to 120 billion so 50 times more coins are going to be produced like this but here's the good news the price isn't going to decrease the price is going to stay exactly the same and she said as a little reward cuz I know you'll be worried about all this all the coins in your account are going to double overnight I'm going to double the coins what we will do as a company we will double the coins on your account none of it makes any sense this is not how economics Works investors were really from every profession every religion rich and poor alike but there were people who were selling everything they owned to invest their money in this I spoke to a nurse I spoke to a doctor I spoke to a dentist who'd left their jobs to just promote one coin to buy one coin and promote it I spoke to people who'd invested their father's inheritance she'd promised so many people they were going to get rich but they actually believe that she could do this and that it would work towards the end of the summer of 2017 17 pressure is starting to mount on her there are Regulators around the world that seem to be sniffing around what's going on and she panics and she realizes she's got to get out as it happens she's completely right the Department of Justice in early October issued a sealed arrest warrant for her she asks her younger brother Constantine who works as her PA to book her two flights one to Vienna and one to Athens she takes the one to Athens and at that point the trial goes completely dead we just don't know exactly what happened to her ignatova predicted all of this in 2014 when she was just starting one coin back then she wrote an email that was entitled exit strategy she listed a number of options for how to get away with it the very first one Take the Money and Run and over months and months we are trying to piece together from tip offs from sightings from a knowledge of her lifestyle from private investigators helping us and trust me I've had sightings in every single country you can imagine she's had a sex change and she lives in Brazil and we have to investigate this stuff I had a very credible sighting at Heathrow Airport about 6 months ago someone told me that they'd sold her a car I mean it's literally she's everywhere and nowhere but this is what I I think probably happened she gets to Thessalon she hangs around there for a couple of days and then she does the one thing that people wouldn't expect which is she goes back into Bulgaria again I think she thought Bulgaria was a smart place for her to lay low for a while to see what happened but then in early 2018 the German police who've also been investigating Dr roua raid her office and she thinks oh man this this is really serious I'm not going to get away with this and so she goes again and this time I think she goes to Dubai she had a penthouse there she had a residency card in Dubai she had lots of her businesses based in Dubai she knew a lot of people there in 2019 the US actually published their arrest warrant for her their indictment and they arrested her brother and I think at that point she thought Dubai is no longer a safe haven for me not the one I thought it was so I'm going to move again and now she comes back into Europe Bear In Mind by this point she has got a lot of plastic surgery she's got very very good fake documentation fake passports she travels under a different name so she I think was able to get back into Europe and all the different sightings that I've had the very very credible ones as well Place her in and around the Mediterranean in and around Greece in particular so our working the theory is that she spends a lot of time at Sea on a large super yacht of some kind being out at Sea is actually a safe fish place to be it's quite hard to police international waters the fun thing about making this podcast was we went to sfia of course where the headquarters were we went to their head office which was still open there was staff going in and out this huge security guy just standing there looking angry one coin logos sort of plastered all over the walls and I couldn't believe it was still open then we went to her Beach mansion in Sopo on the Black Sea went to look at her yacht we then got word that she might be in Frankfurt somehow so we just rocked up to Frankfurt and started walking around all the expensive streets we went into the casinos we went into the top restaurants with photographs has this woman have you seen this woman she's got blonde hair there now she looked Have You Seen Her have you seen her no one had except a postman who vaguely recognized the name and the face we went to Uganda where we traveled 400 mil west of campala to Tiny Villages where nearly everyone had invested in onecoin and still believed in it I turned up at a onecoin office in Uganda speaking to someone who was still promoting one coin still telling me that everything was going to be fine Rouge is going to come back one day we started work on the podcast in late 2018 but the first episode came out in September 2019 we did a follow-up episode in mid 2020 because her brother turned up in court testifying against her investment manager he'd been arrested and pleaded guilty to fraud agreed to work with the government in June 2022 published a book The Missing crypto Queen which brings it right up to speed I thought anyway because one week after the book came out the FBI added her to the top 10 most wanted fugitives list and we've been inundated with more sightings and tip offs which we are now investigating so the story is just still going our hope is that naming her to the top 10 most wanted fugitive list will draw attention to her and her alleged crimes and allow us to bring her to Justice here in the United States you think yes I think it's becoming a race between us and the FBI about who's going to find her first I'm not even joking one coin is still going today there are still people promoting it anyone right now if you wanted to could go onto their website you could find Facebook groups promoting it and I don't know even when Dr rouer is finally caught maybe that's the moment it'll all be over and that is why finding her is so important

Channel: VICE News

Views: 712,038

Keywords: crypto queen documentary, crypto queen scam, crypto queen found, crypto queen bbc, cryptoqueen podcast, crypto, cryptocurrency, Dr Ruja Ignatova, ruja ignatova bbc, ruja ignatova, ruja ignatova documentary, onecoin latest news, onecoin scam, onecoin documentary, onecoin news, onecoin exchange, onecoin ruja ignatova, onecoin onelife, onecoin 2023, crime, fake, scam, con, documentary, documentaries, vice guide, vice.com, vice, vice magazine, vice videos, world news, investigators

Id: ZoklPHEjXl4

Length: 11min 59sec (719 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 14 2023