Ruja Ignatova
Ruja Ignatova is a convicted Bulgarian fraudster. She is best known as the founder of a Ponzi scheme known as OneCoin, which The Times has described as "one of the biggest scams in history". She was the subject of the 2019 BBC podcast series The Missing Cryptoqueen. The Times has also referred to her as a "scam queen".
Since 2017, she has been on the run from law enforcement, including the FBI. She has been charged in absentia by U.S. authorities for wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering.Biography
Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, she emigrated to Germany with her family when she was ten years old, and spent part of her childhood in Schramberg in the state of Baden-Württemberg. In 2005, she earned a PhD in European private law from the University of Constance with the dissertation Art. 5 Nr. 1 EuGVO – Chancen und Perspektiven der Reform des Gerichtsstands am Erfüllungsort; which discusses lex causae in conflict of laws. Her doctoral advisor was Astrid Stadler. In 2012, she was convicted of fraud in Germany in connection with her and her father Plamen Ignatov's acquisition of a company that shortly afterwards was declared bankrupt in dubious circumstances; she was given a suspended sentence of 14 months' imprisonment.
In 2014, she founded a Ponzi scheme called OneCoin. In 2017, she disappeared. In 2019, her brother Konstantin Ignatov pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering in connection with the scheme.
Ruja's German ex-husband works as a lawyer in Frankfurt with the firm Linklaters; they had a daughter in 2016.
