GERMANY - When Ruja Ignatova fell off the face of the Earth in 2017, she was already on the FBI's radar for orchestrating one of the largest cryptocurrency scams of all time. Seven years later, she's still nowhere to be found and the price on her head is now $5 million.Ignatova was born in Bulgaria and raised in Germany before graduating from Oxford University in England. At 34 years old she launched OneCoin, a Ponzipyramid scheme disguised as a new cryptocurrency.
In 2018, documents were uncovered relating to the death of a Bulgarian police officer that indicated a possible connection between Ignatova and the Bulgarian mafia. The documents suggested Ignatova may have been killed on a mafia boss' private yacht, but the source of the information was heavily intoxicated and claimed that Ignatova's body had been dismembered and scattered throughout the Ionian Sea.
Authorities believe Ignatova made off with a large sum of cash when she vanished, suggesting she could have some powerful friends hiding her. This bounty increase is likely to encourage those who may be financially reliant on her.. Ingatova's story has intrigued the entire world, with everyone wondering where the wealthy criminal may be hiding .
Furthermore, OneCoin's spectacular scam has created a lot more skeptics in the cryptocurrency industry, and the desire for more oversight into crypto companies.