the true story of Ruja Ignatova

This week, BBC Sounds released an investigative podcast hosted by Jamie Bartlett all about Dr Ruja Ignatova, the woman alleged to be behind what could be the largest cryptocurrency scam of all time in what the US Department of Justice called an “old fashioned pyramid scheme on a new school platform”. In 2017, Ruja disappeared. She hasn’t been seen since.

The podcast investigates what happened after she vanished, as the team travels to Germany, Uganda and Bulgaria in search of the self-proclaimed ‘Cryptoqueen’. But what’s the story that led up to this manhunt? How did one woman get almost £4bn from total strangers?

Who is Ruja Ignatova?

In 2014 a woman named Ruja Ignatova founded a company called OneCoin and opened an office in Slaveykov Central Capital Square, Bulgaria. Riding on the wave of the cryptocurrency movement, OneCoin claimed to be a digital currency “just like the serial number on a paper bill, each digital coin is unique. Unlike money issued by governments, there is…