Ruja Ignatova is referred to defraud billions of dollars to investors around the world.This is their story.
Well-known theory in sociology says thatthe connection between two people in the worldhave a maximum distance of six degrees or related people.As a journalist, it is relatively easy to be close to public figures.What no one expects is to be compared to a world-class criminal.
It happened to me, without knowing it, six years ago, with that just-in July of this year, she was namedthe women's most searched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the US(FBI, for its acronym in English).She is Ruja Ignatova, the self-proclaimed 'queen of the cryptocurrencies', a woman born in Bulgaria and raised in Germany accused of “defrauding billions of dollars to investors around the world”, and who is now in hiding, “traveling with armed guards and/or partners”, according to the bureau.
The invitation from 'doctor Ignatova' arrives
Our meeting took place in September 2016, while the scam was ongoing.The time was ripe.Three years before, thebitcoin had started a roller-coaster ride to the jump in price in a few months, and put to the cryptocurrencies on the radar of investors and the public in general.The appetite for investing in something that could double or triple sti value lucia appealing, especially after the stock market overall had closed 2015 with the network, amid concerns about an economic slowdown in China, a fear that was still in force.
In that year, I was the editor of Markets forThe Financial Bloombergand the universe crypto was a recurring theme in the coverage of the journal.Debates over whether this type of assets were or were not reliable were common among the investment community, regulators and central banks, but also in newsrooms and in the media.The rigor to evaluate the publication and hierarchy of these issues had become a key. And so it was in this case.
Among the dozens of emails and calls we received on a daily basis in the wording (I've got the Invitation from a well-respected public relations agency, for an interview todr Ignatova,who was visiting Mexico for a few daysto submit your project OneCoin.
The interview looked promising.The character wasan 'eminence' of the cryptocurrencies, and the project had thousands of partners in Mexico and in other parts of the world.Dubai and Singapore sprouted up in conversation several times as hosts of their past events.
The doctor, of 36 years old at the time, would have a tight schedule in Mexico, as it included meetings with the media and event presentation with all partners in the country.OneCoin was also on the verge of its second anniversary and in their social networks, they claimed that they would make a great event in Bangkok, Thailand, where they would celebrate in addition to the 2.5 million members in the 'family' ofOneLife, the parent company of the scam.
The three alerts that something was wrong
The usual procedure of a journalist prior to any interview is to make an investigation of the character and of the company it represents.This can include finding information on financial reports, public records, documents, and of course, it is necessary to knowwhat I have said to the press about it.
The findings with respect to One Coin and dr. Ignatova werea mountain of questionable content:they were almost allreports sponsoredon different platforms, but that was always re-targeted to the site of OneCoin.Among the materials, there was an image of an alleged cover of the Bulgarian production of the magazineForbeswith the creator of OneCoin as sti main element, but the image was suspicious, to say the least.There I received the first alert.
About the editorial content, and the discovery was limited to a few notes of media specialized in cryptocurrencies whoclaimed that OneCoin could be a scamand that I was under investigation in several European countries, but at that time, the media were not the most reliable sources.After sending a few emails to companies and fellow journalists in international media,no one could give me information about it.That was the second warning.
Finally, came the detailed review of the website of OneLife and the explanation of the scheme.This consisted in the purchase packages with a certain number of tokens or credits with prices ranging from 100 to hundreds of thousands of euros, but that they were not cryptocurrencies, in reality represented levels of an educational material that showed how to mine OneCoin eleven it launched .In effect!OneCoin had not even had an ICO(Initial Coin Offering), and what they offer their promoters was the expectation of a currency that would overthrow to Bitcoin, and the possibility of earning money by selling these packages to more people.That was the third alert.
Facing
Far from making me go back, the foci yellow became fuel for the interview. The characters are controversialtends to spice it up more notes in journals.
The venue was the hotel St.Regis in Mexico City, a place where political and business are regular.It was September 8, 2016, and the team composed by the photographer Braulio Tenorio, the cameraman Luis Fernando Aceves and this reporter, we at 15:00 hours.After a short wait in the lobby, there was a group of at least a dozen men with a wide variety of accents in Latin America.Behind them came the agent of public relations.The platoon was composed of the main promoters of OneCoin in the Latin American region. I was introduced to some of them and it only took only a few seconds to several would like to become a 'partner', that is to say, to sell me one of the packages of the cryptocurrency.
After declining the offer, two men clad in suits that looked very fine appeared on the scene to announce that we upload.The meeting took place into the Astor Suitefloor 12, whose price per night exceeds six thousand dollars and it has a large bedroom, a dining room for six people, in a separate room and the best view you can get of the statue of Diana the Huntress.
At the door expecting another suit.His appearance was a little unusual for the elite of the financial world.Her hands and neck covered with tattoos.We welcomed the team ofThe Financier-Bloombergand the retinue of advocates who came up at the same time.His English had a foreign accent.Although not presented, his appearance coincided with the Bulgarian'sKonstantin Ignatov, brother of Ruja, who would be apprehended by the FBI in 2019.I led us to the room where we set up all the equipment.
And there we begin. The woman, who some time before had been the host of an event at the Arena Wembley, London with hundreds of thousands of guests, answered every question we had with the security of someone calling <i>cryptoqueen</i>. First we talked about the future of cryptocurrencies, its use, its regulation, and even of their obstacles. I have recounted, among other things, that <b>I wanted to use the cryptocurrency to make the financial system more inclusive</b>. For example, I have said that the currency would send remittances through a platform of their own, and thus make it more fair commissions for migrants around the world. The debacleThe history of dr Ruja, which, according to<i> The Wall Street Journal
Dressed in a green dress worthy of an academic, and with a very characteristic make-up, Ignatova played a great role. She executed a script perfectly armed with key words and themes about a bright future for the crypto ecosystem. Her reasons for delaying OneCoin''s departure sounded reasonable at least , but about the questioning of her credibility, there was not an iota of nervousness. Her argument actually placed her in an almost heroic position, since she claimed to lead to project so disruptive that it scared many people , but that in reality it would revolutionize the entire universe of cryptocurrencies.
After 30 minutes on a camera and a brief chat with her off the record , I left the luxurious suite with the team, to go back to the newsroom.
The verdict: the material was not suitable for publication . The qualification in the fact checking procedure was failing, but even more important was the atmosphere that was perceived throughout the interview process, since it was too confusing and murky. It smelled like scam .
A day later, Roar announced our interview through their social networks, warning that she would know of his vision on the future of cryptocurrencies, and specifically of OneCoin, but the publication did not come.From the public relations agency received for several months, questions about the editorial criteria not to publish the interview, and I often sent information with the updates,despite the fact that I had begun to reveal the fraud.
the debacle
The story of Dr. Ruja, who according to The Wall Street Journal eleven worked at the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., gained fame in the following months, but not for positive reasons, but rather because of the public claims of the swindled .
Finally, Ignatova, who according to the research of various means yes is a graduate of a bachelor's degree at the prestigious University of Oxford and a Ph.D. in Private Law in Germany at the University of Constance, disappeared in 2017.
The story of how faded it was published this year by the journalist Jamie Bartlett of the british networkBBC, who dedicated hundreds of hours to dofact checkingto be able to distinguish what is real and what is fictional.According to the text, the hoax you overcame the four billion dollars andis one of the scams in financial history''s greatest, carried out through a Ponzi scheme of the libretto undercover with the words of fashion: cryptocurrency and blockchain.
In Mexico, the story took on a tinge of darkness.In 2020, two promoters of OneCoin, one Chilean and one Argentine, appeared killed in Mazatlan, according to reports from local media.Maybe the scam came to whom I should not.
On Ignatova, the final FBI report, quoted by Bartlett, revealed that he had traveled to Athens, and after that did not have any record of your location.What we do know is that there is far more than six degrees, according to the sociological theory.
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