Lacking “Crypto Queen” Ruja Ignatova might perchance perchance very nicely be hiding in Russia to keep away from prison fees, consistent with a BBC investigative journalist that focus on Kremlin affairs.
Ignatova changed into as soon as a Bulgarian-born entrepreneur who essentially based a false cryptocurrency ‘pyramid design’ identified as OneCoin, which is believed to enjoy scammed investors out of roughly $4 billion. She disappeared in 2017 and hasn’t been publicly located since.
Yoran Tsalov, who furthermore labored for Bellingcat, argued that Ignatova “has been linked to multiple other folks and interests connected to the Kremlin” in an electronic mail shared with Decrypt.
Tsalov claims these links enjoy been confirmed by Ignatova’s dilapidated security adviser Frank Schneider for the period of a BBC interview with him, completed as half of the outlet’s Lacking CryptoQueen investigation and podcast sequence.
Schneider is a dilapidated stare for Switzerland, who later essentially based a non-public investigation company which changed into as soon as hired by OneCoin. He changed into as soon as build below home arrest in France, because of the his connection with the operation, forward of going on the lunge in 2023.
As nicely as, Tsalov claims that the ongoing BBC investigation established that likely the most most corporations that laundered money by OneCoin enjoy been connected to the dilapidated pro-Russian president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich.
In 2019, Yanukovich changed into as soon as sentenced absentia to 13 years in penal complex on treason fees by Ukraine’s top court docket. He is widely regarded as to enjoy had a sprawling web of offshore resources got because of the corruption.
Yanukovich himself now lives his existence in exile in Russia.
Tsalov highlights that Ignatova’s security adviser Frank Schneider himself averted extradition.
“If he can orchestrate his disappearance from France the place apart he changed into as soon as below home arrest, searching forward to extradition to the U.S., then completely he can manage hers from Bulgaria,” he argued.
Here is the inner most conception of Tsalov, and is no longer essentially shared by the BBC team that conducted the Lacking CryptoQueen investigation into the fraudster.
“It’s great more uncomplicated for the prison actors concerned about this affair to help her alive and, by her, manage their resources,” Tsalov added.
There are endless assorted theories about the lacking “Crypto Queen” region. German newspaper Der Spiegel furthermore printed an editorial in November 2024, bringing up that German authorities are shopping for a girl in South Africa. Meanwhile, some Bulgarian police reviews claim she might perchance perchance merely enjoy been dismembered on a yacht and thrown into the Ionian Sea.
Many assorted excessive-profile wished other folks hiding in Russia enjoy avoided extradition requests for years.
Smartly-known US authorities whistleblower Edward Snowden has lived in Russia since 2013.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
