There are too many scams in the crypto industry, some more serious than others. OneCoin is one such infamous scam that put its founder Ruja Ignatova, on the FBI’s most wanted list. However, the Bulgarian Cryptoqueen has been elusive to law enforcement authorities since 2017, leading to many speculations on whether she is still alive or not.

The OneCoin Ponzi scam defrauded investors of over $4.5 billion by projecting it as the next big cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. Introduced in 2014, OneCoin was portrayed as a decentralized crypto asset with lots of transaction activity, while in reality, it operated on a centralized system with lots of false entries.

With multiple ‘wo’manhunts by law enforcement agencies to discover the whereabouts of Ruja Ignatova not bearing any fruit, speculations are afoot. Even journalists and media outlets are running parallel investigations into the disappearance of Ignatova. The latest investigation by BBC World Service’s Eye Investigations and Panorama seems to shed some light on the mystery.

The BBC documentary on the topic released earlier today focuses on Ignatova’s underworld ties, specifically her connection to Hristoforos Nikos Amanatidis aka Taki. According to the BBC-Panaroma investigation, Taki was paid by Ignatova to provide her with security in exchange for her help in laundering money for the notorious drug trafficker.

The documentary cites information from various journalists and sources close to the investigation to come up with a highly plausible theory. According to the BBC-Panaroma documentary, it is highly probable that Taki turned against Ignatova to avoid the attention of law enforcement agencies.

The source of this information seems to have come from a police report that was handed over to a Bulgarian investigative journalist Dimitar Stoyanov of bird.bg. The document is said to include a statement by one of the police informants who is said to have overheard Taki’s brother-in-law stating Ignatova was murdered in 2018 on Toki’s orders. It also states that her body was dismembered and dumped into Ionian Sea.

Another of Taki’s associates, Krasimir Kamenov seems to have added credence to Ignatova’s fate by recalling a conversation he had with Taki regarding her where he said, “Don’t worry, she’s as good as dead”.

If the news revealed by the BBC documentary turns out to be true, all investigations into the OneCoin scam and Ignatova would be hitting a brick wall. Investors optimistic about recovering at least a small portion of the lost funds will have to drop their hopes.

However, there is still a sliver of hope for the OneCoin scam victims as long as Ignatova remains on the FBI’s most-wanted list.

The BBC World Service’s Eye Investigations and Panorama documentary is available here: