How OneCoin's 'Cryptoqueen' Scammed Investors Out of $4 Billion (cnn.com) 64
CNN remembers how in 2016 Ruja Ignatova "touted her company, OneCoin, as a lucrative rival to Bitcoin in the growing cryptocurrency market." As OneCoin's co-founder, Ignatova told one audience in 2016 that "In two years, nobody will speak about Bitcoin anymore.
"Sixteen months later, Ignatova boarded a plane in Sofia, Bulgaria, and vanished. She hasn't been seen since." Authorities say OneCoin was a pyramid scheme that defrauded people out of more than $4 billion as Ignatova convinced investors in the US and around the globe to throw fistfuls of cash at her company. Federal prosecutors describe OneCoin as one of the largest international fraud schemes ever perpetrated. She is now one of the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives, alongside accused gang leaders and murderers, and is the only woman currently on that list....
Ignatova and her partners "conned unsuspecting victims out of billions of dollars, claiming that OneCoin would be the 'Bitcoin killer,'" US Attorney Damian Williams, New York's top prosecutor, said in a statement last month. "In fact, OneCoins were entirely worthless ... (Their) lies were designed with one goal, to get everyday people all over the world to part with their hard-earned money."
One subheading of CNN's story reads "She knew it was a scam from the start, court documents say." While [co-founder] Greenwood and Ignatova were working on the concept for OneCoin, they referred to it in emails as a "trashy coin," federal officials said in court documents. The documents show Greenwood described their investors as "idiots" and "crazy" in an email to Ignatova's brother, Konstantin Ignatov, who also took part in the scam and assumed OneCoin leadership after his sister vanished, according to prosecutors.... She also proposed an exit strategy should the company fail, saying in a 2014 email to Greenwood that they should "take the money and run and blame somebody else for this...."
Ignatova and her partners promised buyers a fivefold or even tenfold return on their investment, according to court documents. A buying frenzy ensued. Between the fourth quarter of 2014 and the fourth quarter of 2016 alone, investors gave OneCoin more than $4 billion, federal prosecutors said, citing records obtained in the course of their investigation. Some $50 million came from investors in the US, according to court documents. "She timed her scheme perfectly, capitalizing on the frenzied speculation of the early days of cryptocurrency," said Williams, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan.
The FBI is now offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to her arrest, according to the article, which notes this line appearing at the bottom of her FBI wanted poster.
"Ignatova is believed to travel with armed guards and/or associates. Ignatova may have had plastic surgery or otherwise altered her appearance."
"Sixteen months later, Ignatova boarded a plane in Sofia, Bulgaria, and vanished. She hasn't been seen since." Authorities say OneCoin was a pyramid scheme that defrauded people out of more than $4 billion as Ignatova convinced investors in the US and around the globe to throw fistfuls of cash at her company. Federal prosecutors describe OneCoin as one of the largest international fraud schemes ever perpetrated. She is now one of the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives, alongside accused gang leaders and murderers, and is the only woman currently on that list....
Ignatova and her partners "conned unsuspecting victims out of billions of dollars, claiming that OneCoin would be the 'Bitcoin killer,'" US Attorney Damian Williams, New York's top prosecutor, said in a statement last month. "In fact, OneCoins were entirely worthless ... (Their) lies were designed with one goal, to get everyday people all over the world to part with their hard-earned money."
One subheading of CNN's story reads "She knew it was a scam from the start, court documents say." While [co-founder] Greenwood and Ignatova were working on the concept for OneCoin, they referred to it in emails as a "trashy coin," federal officials said in court documents. The documents show Greenwood described their investors as "idiots" and "crazy" in an email to Ignatova's brother, Konstantin Ignatov, who also took part in the scam and assumed OneCoin leadership after his sister vanished, according to prosecutors.... She also proposed an exit strategy should the company fail, saying in a 2014 email to Greenwood that they should "take the money and run and blame somebody else for this...."
Ignatova and her partners promised buyers a fivefold or even tenfold return on their investment, according to court documents. A buying frenzy ensued. Between the fourth quarter of 2014 and the fourth quarter of 2016 alone, investors gave OneCoin more than $4 billion, federal prosecutors said, citing records obtained in the course of their investigation. Some $50 million came from investors in the US, according to court documents. "She timed her scheme perfectly, capitalizing on the frenzied speculation of the early days of cryptocurrency," said Williams, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan.
The FBI is now offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to her arrest, according to the article, which notes this line appearing at the bottom of her FBI wanted poster.
"Ignatova is believed to travel with armed guards and/or associates. Ignatova may have had plastic surgery or otherwise altered her appearance."
a fool and their money (Score:2)
parting ways, on a jet to Bulgaria
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curious.
does the cryptoqueen.
have a dragon tattoo
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Uh... what? (Score:1)
Why do such morons have so much money to hand out in the first place?
Seriously... "Oh wow, another cryptocurrency that's going to take over the world". We've heard it thousands of times since BTC appeared. It's NEVER true. Not once. Why would you put money in to yet another? Even if it wasn't a scam it still wouldn't succeed.
Man, I need to jam a crayon in to my brain or something so I too can have have millions of dollars to play with. What. The. Fuck.
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They probably thought they would cash out before the crash.
Re:Uh... what? (Score:4, Insightful)
Why do such morons have so much money to hand out in the first place?
Many people got money because they inherited it or got lucky.
How-to (Score:1)
How to con crypto enthusiasts out of 4 billion dollars : Offer them some pointless digital token and they'll give you their life savings. Rinse, repeat.
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How to con crypto enthusiasts out of 4 billion dollars : Offer them some pointless digital token and they'll give you their life savings. Rinse, repeat.
The crazy thing about OneCoin is that they didn't even bother making worthless tokens (because that would involve hiring someone who actually understood something about blockchains).
Re:How-to (Score:5, Interesting)
Nowadays, investors look a little closer. That is what NFTs are for: a way to obfuscate the fact that your bored ape opportunity of a lifetime is nothing more than the next pyramid scheme.
This (Score:4, Funny)
This is my shocked face.
The dumbest 0.2 percent (Score:5, Informative)
So, we’re talking about the dumbest 1-2% of the worlds people that are doing this. That makes so much more sense to me. The bottom 1% can’t even read or add. Figuring out if an investment strategy is sound or if they’ve become a mark? No way.
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"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." -- misattributed to Albert Einstein
The dumbest 1-2% might be involved with this, but mostly they're not putting in 10+% of their net worth, and there are an almost infinite number of other frauds competing for their money (work-from-home for BigCorpXYZ, 419 scams, high-speed rail along a US coast, and more). I think a much broader slice of the public are falling for cryptocurrency fraud.
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Only made money if they sold.
They could've sold at 68k.
A bunch of people bought at 68k. Think about those losses.....
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Only made money if they sold.
They could've sold at 68k.
It's going to be back at $100k any day now, or so say various articles that I keep seeing.
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Lol, yup, any moment now! HODL! YOU FOOLS!!! HODLLLLLL!!!!!!!
To infinity and beyond!
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A bunch of people bought at 68k. Think about those losses.....
This might be too much information, but I’ve just discovered it is possible to have an orgasm from schadenfreude.
A lot of it is criminals (Score:2)
Also, the NFT B.S. was entirely an attempt to get around government tightening of tax laws around art. That's why the market collapsed so quickly. It was all money launderers and tax cheats but gov'ts declared NFTs art covered by same laws so that went out the window.
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I used to be dumbfounded by the idiocy of the crypto fans. But then I realize that there’s about 800 billion dollars of wealth in crypto, and there’s about 450 trillion dollars worth of wealth in the world, total.
How do you even define "wealth" in this context? If that crypto stash is valued (by idiots) to 800 billion dollars, it is still worth nothing. Just an example - I create an NFT from the xerox copy of my bottom (pants on, of course, to not violate any site rules). My friend buys that NFT with ONE BILLION DOLLARS. Does that mean that there is now one billion dollars of WEALTH in those NFTs (about xerox copies of my bottom)?
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I suspect he's saying that if you sold all the Bitcoin and eth currently being held at current prices it would be that number. Of course that can't happen, prices would crash to zero and there'd be no buyers.
Re: The dumbest 0.2 percent (Score:2)
Just an example - I create an NFT from the xerox copy of my bottom (pants on, of course, to not violate any site rules). My friend buys that NFT with ONE BILLION DOLLARS. Does that mean that there is now one billion dollars of WEALTH in those NFTs (about xerox copies of my bottom)?
Yes, in that case. The reality is dumber than that, it's more like you took a thousand pictures, and sell them for around $100 each to morons. They sell them to bigger morons for a little more each time, who sell them to bigger morons. Picture a collectible trading card deal, they might only change hands once a month or so.
Time goes on and the price goes up to a million dollars each for some god forsaken reason that has nothing to do with the actual value of a picture of your ass. You could say they're w
Re:The dumbest 0.2 percent (Score:4, Insightful)
So, weâ(TM)re talking about the dumbest 1-2% of the worlds people that are doing this.
Clearly, we are not talking about the poorest 1%, proving once again how wealth correlates poorly with intelligence, and why we should not revere the wealthy as some people do.
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Consider that the rich are putting 98% of their money elsewhere or 98% of rich aren't in crypto at all or whatever.
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Confidence men (and women) have been refining their game for centuries. They've learned what buttons to push for a certain segment of the population. There's that saying, "You can't cheat an honest man." It's not true. But I do think that some scams are particularly geared to appeal to dishonest traits in some part of the population, just as other scams are geared to honest but trusting people who've lived their lives in cultures and environments where cheating is rare. so they lack experience. I also
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It's impossible to know how many were dumb and how many were just hoping to make the various scams work for them. Some people did make quite a lot of money from crypto, by hyping it and getting out at the right time.
Hasn't been seen since? (Score:4, Insightful)
When you scam people out of $4k-40million, the FBI may want to look in the Bahamas and check people with suspicious looking false names.
When you scam people out of $4billion, the FBI may want to start looking in the bottom of the ocean.
Re:Hasn't been seen since? (Score:5, Funny)
If you scam people out of 40 millions, the government wants to arrest you.
If you scam people out of 40 billions, the government wants to hire you.
Her brother is a moron. (Score:2)
"Ignatova's brother, Konstantin Ignatov, was arrested in March 2019 at Los Angeles International Airport. He'd traveled to the US on business and was preparing to board his return flight to Bulgaria"
Traveling to the USA? Perhaps he might have been extradited from Bulgaria, but making it so easy for the FBI to pick him up by traveling to the USA is really stupid.
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The second rule is don't invest in OneCoin(or any other).
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I'm going to try that on my crypto bro nephew, thank you!
"If you look around the table and can't figure out who the mark is, it's you!"
Idiots and crazy? Hell yes! (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, wrong she isn't. Crypto is a scam, fueled by one's desire to make cash out of thin air. To believe on it, you must be idiot and crazy, so she was into something. Instead of being arrested, she deserves a prize, by showing how foolish man are when in pursuit of easy money.
I'm shocked (Score:5, Funny)
Thank goodness that most crypto currencies and NFTs are operated by people as honest as the day is long and this "crypto queen" is an aberration to an otherwise productive and fruitful financial venture.
All too common EXCEPT (Score:2)
This one didn't spend much effort with the phony veneer on top of the con. The entire ecosystem is crawling with grifters and outright criminals. The biggest use cases for "crypto currency" have been to facilitate extortion, theft of services and illegal capital flight along with your vanilla cons of stupid people.
The only real shocker is that enough people with political power are being (and have been) greased that this con has been allowed to continue for many years.
It's been an obvious ponzi scheme fro
Cryptocurrency being used to scam? (Score:2)
Someone has some pearls to clutch? I can't be assed to be honest.
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You can borrow my pearls but you can't keep them.
I need them myself for the weekly crypto scam articles.
Clutching so hard!
to be clear (Score:2)
She conned people out of $4 BILLION.
To be clear, I have no skin in the game: I think crypto is itself generally a con game, and the people falling for it are morons.
But the reward for her is a paltry $100k, and if they do get her, she'll spend some time in a cushy prison. Zzzz.
Until our penalties are commensurate with the crimes, this will continue to happen.
Offer $10 million tax free for her head no questions asked, genetically proved by 2 labs to get the reward, and even her own bodyguards will reconsider
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Hmmm.. well.... 'only' $50m was American money so the FBI isn't $4b level interested.
As far as punishment, hm, well, I get what you're saying and sort of agree but also don't feel much for her suckers, either. These dumbasses gave $4b to someone with no history who made up some nonsense and they got burned. It's not like someone ripped off a senile grandma. These people with $4b should have known better. They got what they deserved.
She's almost like an anti-hero, screwing over people way more dumb than
Hello, (Score:4, Funny)
I'm a Bulgarian Princess and I need your help...
/. is 2 years late; 15 Billion Scam (Score:2)
YouTuber ColdFusion had a documentary [youtube.com] on this 2 years ago about how she scammed 15 Billion out of people.
Why is this article showing up now?
Re: /. is 2 years late; 15 Billion Scam (Score:2)
One to rule them all (Score:2)
It takes two to scam. (Score:2)
If you get taken in by a scam merely because the founder was confident and talked a big game, you deserve to be scammed.
Seriously, what is this phenomenon of people eagerly believing someone just because they make big claims? The bigger the claim without evidence, the more they believe? Has "The Secret" actually become secretly influential in the "investing" world?
"Ignatova is believed to travel with armed guards and/or associates. Ignatova may have had plastic surgery or otherwise altered her appearance."
What an existence. Is she happy, being constantly reminded to look over her shoulder all the time?
Th
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They should actually put out a reward on anyone in her employ.
The people in her employ have no idea who she was. They think she is someone else entirely, with some respectable source of her wealth, like drug money.
Great podcast about OneCoin (Score:2)
Great podcast about OneCoin and Dr Ruja https://open.spotify.com/show/5nk7d9MLCgE3M47mXPW7MP [spotify.com]. A couple of things really stood out
Follow the money (Score:3)
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Wash it through a bunch of dirty banks like the rest of the dirty money out there.
She didn't vanish (Score:3, Informative)
First, this:
> “In fact, OneCoins were entirely worthless "
All unbacked currency is entirely worthless. That includes the USD. The only thing keeping them afloat is people's belief in government backing, exactly the one thing so-called "Crypto" currencies eschew.
> ....and vanished.
She didn't vanish at all. She got on a plane that went from Bulgaria to AN UNAMED NON-EXTRADITION TREATY where she's safe from the "long arm" of the US law.
This isn't really a story. It happens daily. Just this lady didn't get picked up in the Bahamas and unlawfully arrested by US government forces to stand trial in a place she's never been to under laws she's not subject to. Go look up "justice". Then look up Kim Schmitz and Julian Assange. Then take your first amendment talky-part and shut it.
Slashdotters could easily find her (Score:1)
Hard Earned? (Score:2)
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Exactly.
This is a sad commentary on modern society and economy. How do morons get access to such money to throw at scams?
All 'cryptocurrency' is a scam to begin with (Score:2)