This story has been circulating for over three years now with the latest update being that the CryptoQueen, who is still at large, has been found to be in default, alongside financier Gilbert Armenta, after failing to respond to class action lawsuits.
Dr. Ruja Igantova is known by the crypto community, and the feds, for running the largest crypto Ponzi schemes on earth, Onecoin, and it is alleged that she could be holding over €9 billion worth of Bitcoin – wherever she is in the world.
The OneCoin Ponzi Scheme
Bulgarian businesswoman with a Ph.D. in private law, Ruja Ignatova, started the OneCoin cryptocurrency scandal in 2014 alongside Sebastian Greenwood. Ignatova and her company came with promise, as she stood in front of cheering crowds at Wembley Arena in 2016, expressing to the world that OneCoin would become the biggest cryptocurrency to invest in, and the “Bitcoin Killer”.
Dr. Ruja Ignatova of OneCoin
People from all over the globe started investing their savings into Igantova’s cryptocurrency, with high hopes for great returns. The BBC got their hands on leaked documents, and they show that people from Britain alone poured about €30 million into the company in its first six months of operation. Despite the crypto community warning of fraudulent claims and problems with its organizational structure, by 2017, more than €4 billion was invested in OneCoin.
Investors eventually started to allege that OneCoin in fact, never operated off any blockchain technology, and this led to U.S law enforcement sending a warrant out for Ignatova’s arrest – following which the proclaimed ‘CryptoQueen’ vanished.
Ignatova’s co-conspirators, her brother Konstantin Igantova, and Sebastian Greenwood did not experience the same luck. They were arrested for their dealings in the fraudulent €4 billion Ponzi scheme.
The CryptoQueen allegedly holds 230,000 Bitcoin
During OneCoin’s success years, Ignatova and her cohorts spent millions of euros on real estate around the world and lived lives of pure luxury.
Documents filed in the British Indian Ocean Territory Supreme Court show that the CryptoQueen exchanged 230,000 Bitcoin from the son of one of the wealthiest people in Dubai, for OneCoin’s assets at the time the coins were worth €50 million each, in 2015. And it is believed Ignatova still holds all 230,000 Bitcoin while on the run.
Another Crypto Queen making headlines
Ignatova isn’t the only CryptoQueen around, but she is the most notorious. Kimberley Ametoglou is the other ‘Crypto Queen’, but she is making the news for a much lesser scandal.
Ametoglou is an influencer and crypto-advice giver, who has over 134,000 Instagram followers. Recently, she has been under fire from a critic in her Team Valetti crypto group after doubts were raised about her winning the lottery and gaining from the crypto windfall. The anonymous critic found it interesting that Ametoglou won the lottery, and tripled the value of her crypto wallet in a short space of time.
In a May 2021 post, The Crypto Queen said, “I did not make this group to be ridiculed or have my authenticity questioned by people in here”.
“All I have done is literally help and assist as many of you as I can for free. Please have some respect or I will seriously no longer be posting at all, helping any of you and the group will just be deleted,’ she continued.
Ametoglou’s page has since disappeared, with fans wondering “where’d you go?”.
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