Is Cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova Alive? US Govt Raises Reward Offer to $5M

The US government has increased the reward offered for information on the whereabouts of OneCoin co-founder Ruja Ignatova to $5 million.

according to Official release From a U.S. State Department spokesperson, in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria, anyone providing information leading to the arrest or conviction of Ignatova, known as Cryptoqueen, will be rewarded up to $5 million.

This new reward represents a significant increase from the previous offer of $250,000 announced by the FBI and raises speculation about the veracity of rumors about Cryptoqueen’s murder in 2018.

US Puts $5 Million Bounty on Cryptoqueen

Cryptoqueen is wanted in the United States for orchestrating one of the largest transnational fraud schemes in history. While some of her co-conspirators have been arrested and sentenced for their crimes, she has been on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list since 2022.

The 44-year-old Bulgarian-born German national co-founded OneCoin in 2014 and promoted the project as a cryptocurrency investment through false statements and representations. As of 2017, Cryptoqueen had used a Ponzi scheme to defraud investors of over $4 billion.

When investigators caught up with her in late 2017, Ignatova fled Bulgaria for Greece to avoid arrest and has been on the run ever since. The OneCoin creator has been charged by U.S. and German authorities with fraud and money laundering. Bulgarian authorities also plan to charge Ignatova with her crimes soon, to begin the process of confiscating her illegally acquired assets.

Dead or alive?

As the search for Crypto Queen continues, there are rumors that she may have changed her physical appearance through plastic surgery. She is also believed to be traveling with armed security guards and colleagues. The FBI believes she may be using a German passport to visit countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Eastern Europe.

Last year, rumors spread that Bulgarian drug lord Christophros Amanatidis, known as Taki, was also responsible for her security, and sources claimed that Taki ordered a hitman to dismember Ignatova and dump her remains in the Ionian Sea — in an attempt to rid himself of his ties to the OneCoin scam.

However, the BBC team behind The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast did just that. Receive Information about Cryptoqueen’s whereabouts has been lacking since 2018, and after a failed police operation to arrest her in Greece in 2022, rumors about her death may just be a ploy to fool national authorities.