Cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova may have changed her appearance, new documentary suggests

Cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova, the founder of the infamous cryptocurrency scam, OneCoin is believed to be alive and hiding in South Africa, according to a new documentary. Ignatova, who disappeared in 2017, was thought to have been killed by a Bulgarian crime lord, but investigators have doubted this claim and insisted that she may have altered her identity instead.

German filmmaker Johan von Mirbach, who has been investigating Ignatova for years, claims to have received information from sources in South Africa that she is living in an affluent neighbourhood in Cape Town.

According to the report, Ruja Ignatova is of Roma origin. Roma people preserve high specificity in their genetics and phenotype due to the Haplogroup H-M82 (Y-chromosome haplogroup), a major lineage cluster in the Balkan Roma.

A comprehensive study dedicated to the anthropological characteristics of Roma people, proved they have the lowest cephalic index, a wider nose, dark skin pigmentation and densest beard. Their height is mostly short and rarely medium. Her straight dark hair and dark eyes are typical of the Bulgarian Romans.

The researchers entrusted a criminal sketch artist to indicate a diverse range of what Ruja Ignatova might look like today, based on her most recent available photos before her disappearance in 2017. The artists were also required to add 7 years to her age and explore the options of weight gain/loss, cosmetic surgery and gender change.

Consequently, the artists created about 8 sketches of her possible appearance today:

The documentary also revealed that Ignatova’s brother, Konstantin Ignatov, who took over the leadership of the scam after her disappearance, continued to speak with her regularly.

Europol included Ignatova on its most wanted fugitives list in May 2022, and on June 30 2022, the FBI followed suit. This suggests that agencies believe and have evidence that the fraudster is very much alive. According to authorities, Ignatova may be using a fake passport or “travelling on a German passport to the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Bulgaria, Germany, Russia, Greece and/or Eastern Europe.”

A convicted fraudster, Ruja Ignatova has been in hiding since 2017. Her last known location is Athens where she arrived after boarding a flight from Sofia, Bulgaria to the Greek capital on October 25, 2017. Over the past seven years, there have been multiple reported sightings of her in Thailand, Dubai, South Africa, and elsewhere.

None of these have been verified.

Read. also: Ruja Ignatova, highly wanted cryptoqueen suspected to still be alive

Ruja Ignatova’s disappearance: other location theories

Another theory posits that Ruja is on a luxury yacht in the Mediterranean. This is also extremely difficult to confirm. While some believe that Ignatova is currently in hiding, others speculate that she may not even still be alive.

A BBC report dedicated to the OneCoin Ponzi scheme also insinuated Ignatova’s connection with Dubai. In 2021, leaked documents from Dubai’s courts suggested that the emirate was a key financial route for Ignatova to launder millions of dollars.

The investigation reveals that she might have struck a huge, €50 million deal with an Emirati royal, Sheikh Saoud bin Faisal Al Qassimi. The Sheikh reportedly gave Ignatova 230,000 bitcoin in return for three bank cheques from a local bank in 2015. The amount of cryptocurrency was worth €48.5 million at the time.

Over the past decade, Dubai has been mentioned repeatedly by journalist investigations as an attractive destination for questionable characters with many wanted criminals from the European Union, in particular, allegedly living in luxury of the emirate, investing and escaping justice.

Despite claims from UAE officials, Dubai has almost no extradition treaties, including no pacts with the U.S. and the EU. Local authorities are said to tolerate mafia members, drug lords, etc., as long as they do not commit crimes within the country.

Recently, investigative journalist Nikolai Stoyanov, author of “OneCoin: The Woman Who Deceived the World”, claimed. that Ignatova was indeed, hiding in Dubai.

“After boarding the Sofia-Athens flight, she disappeared into thin air since, at this point, she probably suspected she was under investigation”, Stoyanov explains. According to him, Ignatova bugged her American boyfriend’s apartment in an attempt to find out whether he had been faithful to her. This is how she discovered her boyfriend was cooperating with the FBI.

Duncan Arthur, a former member of Ignatova’s inner circle, also confirms that she is alive, stating “There is no murder. She is alive, period.” The documentary raises questions about the previous reports of Ignatova’s death, including the claim that she was killed by a Bulgarian crime lord and dumped into the Ionian Sea.

The investigation into Ignatova’s disappearance is ongoing, and authorities are still searching for her.