How ‘Cryptoqueen’ Ruja Ignatova unleashed a century-long scam - then disappeared

 How ‘Cryptoqueen’ Ruja Ignatova unleashed a century-long scam - then disappeared.

Cryptoqueen

They call it the Bitcoin Killer. OneCoin has promised to be a human cryptocurrency: it will change the world, and make its global army of small investors a life-changing currency. There was nothing but smoke and mirrors. When the time came to count, the story of greed and folly, told by modern technology, left untold numbers of lives ruined. The sad account of how it happened reads in an amazing way, plunging you into the poisonous world of Insta-wealth, betrayal and vicious desires. Lost Cryptoqueen follows OneCoin scandal from its optimistic base to its nasty conclusion. Jamie Bartlett's book is based on a successful BBC podcast, with millions of downloads. Full of excellent, in-depth reporting, the story has now been expanded and updated for publication. At its center is "Cryptoqueen" Ruja Ignatova.Ignatova, a McKinsey mentor and Oxford High School alum, attained the title of "Dr. Ruja", the face of OneCoin and a so-called crypto expert. Secretly, he called himself the "Bitch of Wall Street", and when the chips were down he betrayed even his brother. Just as, for a short time, Elizabeth Holmes of Theanos appeared to be the woman Steve Jobs, Dr. Ruja of OneCoin - the epitome of a brilliant startup, their top team dominated by women - seemed to be Elizabeth Holmes of crypto. Sadly, he and Holmes were very similar in writing oral checks for their businesses that could not make money. And OneCoin's cheating rate was outside the Holmes league. Ignatova's fatal mistake, which she shared with her victims and colleague Sebastian “Flash” Greenwood, was eager to get rich, no matter how expensive it was. He and Greenwood loved fancy clothes and lived luxurious lives, and developed a sophisticated Ponzi-cum-pyramid scheme that sold that dream to lay it behind a layer of suckers. He promised them a new type of blockchain, but it was never built. Breasts end up paying for Dr. Ruja's luxurious lifestyle by exchanging a few useless "educational" pdfs from other people's books. Between 2014 and 2017, OneCoin victims lost a total of three to ten billion euros. Five times the size of Elizabeth Holmes' Thelanos fraud, is one of the biggest scams. It also destroyed people who could not afford it. Bernie Madoff is still an undisputed champion of Ponzi schemes, but the $ 18bn he stole from the 30,000 richest people or fund managers. OneCoin took money to save the lives of one million ordinary people in 175 countries. It has managed to become even bigger by combining the prospects for high cryptocurrency technology with a multi-level marketing system (MLM). OneCoin not only deceived individuals, it encouraged them to become lawyers and sell the dream of making it bigger for people further under the tower. While MLM programs for real products may be legal, OneCoin sold nothing but empty promises. Its unscrupulous scammers bought empty OneCoin packages - and then did their best to sell them to everyone they loved. Money came in like a flood. The rising price of Bitcoin at the same time helped to convince hundreds of thousands of people that this was their chance to jump into the crypto bandwagon. In Hong Kong the supply of cash was so high that a company had to rent an apartment just to cover a set amount of paper money. When the MLM system gains momentum it can grow significantly. OneCoin grew so fast that it had no hope of fulfilling the promises it had made. At its peak, it claims to be worth € 500m in low air every 24 hours. In the end, its investors believe it is due to a staggering € 100bn investment. Dr Ruja, feeling the net tight, disappeared. Bartlett's attempt to follow his lead made the detective story interesting, and it ended with an interesting omission. His ability to track even the smallest digital breadcrumbs will make you think twice before posting a picture on social media again. Cryptoqueen is still lost. He is wanted by Interpol, to answer charges of money laundering and fraud in Germany. So far, he seems to have one step ahead. Ironically, Dr. Ruja is likely to be living a life of luxury with some face-to-face changes due to the Bitcoin he acquired in some of his many complex deals. If so, the recent fall in the price of Bitcoin may limit his next move. While waiting for justice, he ends this 21st century fraudulent account of angry victims and demanding more answers. There is no easy behavior. OneCoin failure is not reflected in cryptocurrency in general. Even in the paper, Dr Ruja’s non-branded product promises to be everything the blockchain is all about: medium, opaque and available at unlimited prices. However, as the financial crisis intensifies, this book does a good job of reminding the reader to hold the mind. When someone promises that “everyone in the room is going to get rich,” he is lying. Lost Cryptoqueen was published by WH Allen for £ 16.99. To order your copy for £ 14.99 call 0844 871 1514 or visit Telegraph Books