Ruja Ignatova, better known as the “Crypto Queen,” may have been the subject of a gruesome murder in 2018.
According to recent Bulgarian sources, Ruja Ignatova, aka the “Crypto Queen,” may have been killed in November 2018.
She is the founder of the OneCoin fraud scheme and was last spotted in Greece in 2017.
More evidence of her possible death
Secret police documents seen by Bulgarian media show that notorious Ruja Ignatova may have been brutally murdered four years ago. The hitman, presumably acting on behalf of local drug lord Hristoforos Amanatidis (“Taki”), chopped up her body and dumped her remains into the Ionian Sea.
"Taki" is rumored to be the head of a criminal gang and one of the drug lords in Eastern Europe. He controls his affairs from abroad since he moved from Bulgaria more than a decade ago after having problems with some political parties. Some reports believe that he ordered the assassination of Ignatova because of his connection to her fraudulent cryptocurrency project OneCoin.
The “Crypto Queen” and her creation defrauded millions of people between 2014 and 2016, stealing more than $4 billion from victims. Shortly after authorities began investigating the fraud, she disappeared and was last seen in Athens, Greece in 2017.
Another theory is that Ignatova (who is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list) is hiding on a luxury yacht in the Mediterranean, far from coast (where law enforcement agencies have no authority to arrest her).
Her boyfriend is in jail.
The Southern District of New York (SDNY) court recently sentenced Ignatova’s ex-boyfriend Gilbert Armenta to five years in prison.
Prosecutors allege he laundered $300 million in proceeds from the OneCoin scam and bought himself luxury items, including a jet.
Armenta also violated his deal with authorities by selling airplanes, stealing a $5 million check, bribing Mexican entities, and gambling away funds siphoned from OneCoin victims.
He received a reduced sentence in 2018 after pleading guilty to money laundering, racketeering and wire fraud. Ignatova’s former lover has asked to serve his sentence at FCI Miami federal prison — a low-security correctional facility for male inmates, and a magistrate judge has yet to decide on that request.