TL;DR Breakdown
- Crypto scammer may have way more BTC than previously known.
- Ruja had accrued Bitcoin from wealthy Dubai citizen.
Onecoin crypto scam ring leader Ruja Ignatova, behind one of the largest crypto scams the industry had ever seen and still at large, is said to have 230,000 Bitcoin.
Ruja Ignatova, also called crypto queen, according to a court document, claims she owns 230,000 BTC, which is equivalent to $11 billion based on today’s market.
Per the document, the crypto queen allegedly received the BTC from a member of an Emirati royal family in Dubai.
Ruja Ignatova and her crypto heist
Ruja is a mysterious woman and remains at large after taking to her heels for about three years. She founded the mysterious Onecoin alongside her brother Konstantin Ignatov and Sebastian Greenwood.
The Onecoin project eventually turned out to be a multi-level-marketing (MLM) venture that featured packages that were ostensibly tethered to a blockchain network.
While touting her OneCoin project, she described it as the Bitcoin killer claiming it would eventually be the most dominant crypto asset. Owing to the proper structure and juicy claims of Ruja Ignatova, she managed to coax a lot of crypto enthusiasts into her game.
The crypto community, however, warned people about her project.
Onecoin started on September 16, 2014, and by 2015, Bulgaria’s Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) issued a warning about the project. The Ponzi’s headquarters was Bulgaria-based. However, it was registered as an offshore company in Dubai, and its subsidiary Onelife Network was registered in Belize.
The game was over for her in 2016 when investigators said the project never used any type of blockchain technology. A warrant for her arrest was signed in 2017, but before she could be nabbed, she disappeared, and her location remains unknown.
How Ruja acquired 230,000 BTC
Reports indicate that the ‘crypto queen’ may have an account in Dubai worth $500 million, but documents also allege that Ruja Ignatova could have obtained 230,000 BTC.
The reports claim that she got the $11 billion worth of Bitcoin from Sheik Saoud, who is the son of one of the wealthiest individuals in Dubai.
The exact details of the transactions are unclear, but the deal allegedly took place in October 2017 when BTC was trading for around $6k per unit. Behind MLM says that the Cryptoqueen’s alleged relationship with Sheik Saoud “came with perks.”
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