Bulgarian OneCoin doco “Deception Queen” out Nov 2022
In addition to the known OneCoin movie and TV series in production, we’re also getting a Bulgarian documentary.
“Deception Queen” entered production in late 2021 and is scheduled for release by the end of the year.
Personally I hadn’t heard of Deception Queen so this popped up out of the blue.
As reported by Cineuropa, Bulgarian screenwriter duo Luchezar Avramov and Dimitar Stoianovich are behind the production.
Deception Queen “aims to blow the lid off the story behind the OneCoin Ponzi scheme”.
The team, who are also relying on the expertise of investigative journalist Nikolay Stoyanov and business development specialist Martin Kadilov, are backed by producer Nikolay Mutafchiev, representing PREMIERstudio, and are being supported by the Bulgarian National Film Center with an estimated budget of €275,500.
The Deception Queen is being prepared as the first actual documentary on the case, by following the story from the beginning and digging into the facts from the very source, such as the central office of the OneCoin company in Bulgaria.
The Deception Queen will include unique footage from the rise of Ignatova and OneCoin, many unpublished audio recordings, and interviews with the first CEO of OneCoin, the lead prosecutor in the investigation on the Bulgarian side, the person who currently manages the company’s assets, as well as victims of the scheme in Britain and the USA.
Being a Bulgarian production, the elephant in the room here is the Bulgarian government’s duplicity.
Both with respect to failing to prosecute anyone involved, and for continuing to allow OneCoin to operate out of Sofia.
I’d love to see that addressed in Deception Queen from within Bulgaria, but I’m not holding my breath.
As per their website, the Bulgarian National Film Center is “an administrative body under the Minister of Culture”.
The Minister of Culture oversees the Ministry of Culture, which of course is an arm of the Bulgarian government.
I did note Deception Queen will feature “the lead prosecutor in the investigation on the Bulgarian side”.
Oddly enough, having published almost 450 articles on OneCoin since 2014, I have no idea what this case is.
As far as I know nobody has been prosecuted for anything related to OneCoin in Bulgaria. I’m not even aware there was a Bulgarian investigation into OneCoin at any point in time.
In fact the Bulgarian government, to date, has failed to publicly address the $4 billion dollar Ponzi scheme it failed to take action on – and continues to turn a blind eye to.
Believe it or not OneCoin still operates globally from Sofia, Bulgaria – from the original office Ruja Ignatova bought way back when.
The only Bulgarian action I’m aware of, was Bulgarian authorities escorting German prosecutors to OneCoin’s Sofia offices.
This resulted in a German led raid in 2018. Beyond that, Bulgarian authorities have done nothing.
Also with respect to interviewing OneCoin’s first CEO, that’d be Ruja Ignatova. She’s been missing since 2017, so I doubt they’ve tracked her down for an interview.
Pablo Munoz (below) replaced Ruja Ignatova as a figurehead CEO in late 2016.
After not really doing much other than collect a paycheck for six months, Munoz disappeared in May 2017.
OneCoin quickly replaced Munoz with Pierre Arens. Arens lasted a few months before he quit in October 2017. Both are believed to have been paid upwards of €2 million EUR for their stints.
If Munoz is who Deception Queen has secured for an interview, it’ll be Munoz’s first public appearance since his time at OneCoin.
I’m also curious as to who “the person who currently manages the company’s assets” is. The fact that this individual is not named is telling.
While it’d certainly be interesting to see a homegrown documentary take its own government to task. I don’t think that’s what we’re getting.
Instead it sounds like a vanilla look at OneCoin, with input from some of the scheme’s most culpable culprits.
Deception Queen is scheduled to be released in November 2022.
I suspect the OneCoin CEO they will interview is the early OneCoin CEO/President Nigel Allen. He was allegedly kicked out, I suppose one because Ruja declined to pay according his contract. Somehow I have my doubts that Munoz is willing to talk, but maybe I’m wrong.
The lead prosecutor in question could be Ivan Geshev who at the time of the Sofia office raid was handling the case. Nowadays Geshev is the Chief prosecutor of Bulgaria.
Anyway, I could be wrong in both cases, but those are my guesses.
As said, Bulgaria hasn’t done almost anything. Last December Bulgaria’s new Deputy Minister of Justice, Julia Kovacheva requested the Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev to conduct an investigation into the OneCoin case described in Dr. Jon Levy’s petition to the Office of Constitutional Ombudsman of Bulgaria.
twitter.com/CryptoXpose/status/1472032714404601857
jlevy.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Petititon-16162021-J-Levy.pdf
I do hope it’s Munoz. I doubt it.
That OneCoin can still operate is a travesty.
What happened to Veska doing some interview? What happened to Valkova doing her story?
This journalist should be publicly praised!
share-your-photo.com/63c8349f4c
acf.bg/en/ekip-chlen/nikolay-stoyanov/
Corruption in Bulgaria is a constant issue. Two examples.
Article from October 2020:
actualno.com/society/nad-2-800-sa-delata-za-korupcija-v-bylgarija-news_1508348.html
Note: Bulgaria has only 6.927 million inhabitants! For comparison: the German cities of Berlin, Hamburg and Munich together have 6.985 million inhabitants.
Report from January 2022:
acf.bg/en/byuletin/
I will be seeking updates from Bulgaria and from the SDNY DOJ Victim & Witness Services on behalf of any interested parties.
We know of $ billions of assets including 230,000 BTC that are unaccounted for. DOJ tracked the Bitfinex hack for 5 years to get 90,000 BTC but has no interest in Ruja’s hoard?
To the best of my knowledge since 2018 no victim has received restitution from any government agency.
It would be a travesty indeed if OneCoin promoters and figures were to receive whistleblower rewards and victims get nothing.
I’m a Bulgarian citizen and have been following the story since early days and I feel ashamed this scam is going on for so long.
People behind this deserve rough sentences along with all the corrupt officials not prosecuting it.
Nigel Allen you reckon? His stint was so brief if you blinked you missed it.
I’d prefer Munoz over Allan. Allan is still scamming people to this day so I’d expect his input to be self-serving.
Oz, I know, but somehow I think Munoz doesn’t want to reappear after his sudden exit and disappearance.
Allan on the other hand has a grudge towards Ruja and OneCoin, and is around..
Yeah I suppose Allan makes more sense. Filming wraps up in May I think it was. Maybe we’ll get a trailer before November.
With their announcement, and I quote:
Nigel Allan was listed as “Acting President” when this launched. That is why I didn’t think it was him.
If they interviewed the first CEO this was Pablo Munoz. Maybe it was just semantics if they called Nigel Allan CEO, but that is not how he was listed when OneCoin launched.
It’s why I thought they interviewed Pablo Munoz.
If my theory/speculation about Ruja’s coins originating from Alexander Vinnik is correct, the DOJ may already be onto it, as they have charged Vinnik(justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/russian-national-and-bitcoin-exchange-charged-21-count-indictment-operating-alleged).
If the 230 000 BTC transaction is real — which I’m not 100% convinced — , I think Vinnik was probably close to being the only person in world who could in theory have had access to that kind of amount of bitcoins, and also close enough to high-level organized crime to make it available for Ruja & Al-Qassimi.
This is because Vinnik is suspected of being involved in the theft and/or laundering of the 630 000 BTC from MtGox hack (–> blog.wizsec.jp/2017/07/breaking-open-mtgox-1.html)
Probably too generic to establish a solid connection, but interestetingly enough, Vinnik’s BTC-e was Ruja’s exchange of choice in 2016 as close to 1000 BTCs from the old OneCoin package sales wallet were laundered on BTC-e, in batches on 100 and 50 BTCs.
Vinnik was arrested in Greece which by coincidence was Ruja last know destination. Vinnik though under indictment has managed to elude extradition to the USA so far:
jackofalltechs.com/2021/06/27/french-court-of-appeals-upholds-alexander-vinniks-sentence/
The Al Qasimmi hand off of 4 cold wallets may have taken place as early as May 2015. The Al Qassimi BTC would not have been linked to known OneCoin wallets if Ruja kept them separate.
See Page 48: jlevy.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/230K-BTC.pdf
Rujas brother is in jail in New York and so is Sebastian Greenwood.
As far as Nigal Allen goes the scumbag took me and some others for over 6 million dollars. You can find him in Thailand.
Now there is another scam in the USA called World Crypto Life. Francis Yoon has scammed me for over a million dollars and continues to scam.
I wish I had known about Francis Yoon and I would not have built WCL. He locked up my accounts because I asked where money was going.
Friends were having money stolen from there backoffice accounts.
Unfortunately MLM businesses can be run safe but there sure are a lot of thieves.
Has anybody noticed yet that Ruja Ignatova was appointed as a director of UK based Fierce PC Ltd on December 14,2021!
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08971719/filing-history?page=1
The previous directors Deborah and Jonathan Carter terminated their appointments and Ruja Ignatova replaced them about 2 months ago. Fierce PC seems to be a recognized name in the specialized PC gaming computer area, being a Red Bull Racing Esports Partner.
Fierce PC’s contact web page lists its company NO: 08971719, which is Fierce PC Ltd, having Ruja Ignatova as the director now.
fiercepc.co.uk/contact-us
I wonder what’s this about??
I think it’s obvious?
Ruja Ignatova has been honing her gaming skillz in the UAE over the past four years (not like there’s much else to do there). Now she’s ready to go pro.
I wonder what her jam is?
My guess is it’s someone doing it for fun. It merely highlights how easy it is to register with Companies House (a UK government body) and how meaningless such registration is.
Alternatively, maybe the person concerned is merely a namesake of the missing fraudster. (There are numerous Bulgarian nationals resident in the UK.)
Either way, I wouldn’t infer anything significant from it.
Llandudno (home to Fierce PLC’s correspondence address) is a pleasant enough town on the N. Wales coast. (I’ve visited it many times.)
However, I can’t imagine THE Ruja Ignatova using it as a correspondence address or living there, never mind drawing attention to the fact. That’s assuming she’s not six feet under somewhere.
^ I don’t think it’s a namesake issue. The birthday listed on the register matches OneCoin Ruja: 5/1980.
Of course Ruja is not in Wales. Anyway, a peculiar case.
After I read WhistleblowerFins information about FiercePC and Ruja, I got into contact with Jonathan Carter.
His answer via LinkedIn:
So I think, the whole thing was a rather silly joke. Martin Himmelheber
Ruja should be careful. Fierce PC trained a cute little cat on firearms:
share-your-photo.com/be8950ee53
Lol, so this is a thing now?
As lightweight as Companies House is, it does require a username and password to change anything and then sends a confirmation.
I wonder if this malicious hack has been reported to the proper authorities at ActionFraud?
They probably should use a stronger password than “Hunter2.”
knowyourmeme.com/memes/hunter2
There was a OneCoin promoter by coincidence named Jon Carter:
businessforhome.org/2016/03/top-leaders-join-onecoin/
What do you reckon the chances of Jon Carter being the same Jon Carter?
@Jon Levy
If the photo is captioned correctly, Jon Carter should be the guy on the left:
share-your-photo.com/581bdcd98d
Jon(athan) Carter, Managing Director at Fierce PC Ltd, is currently using this photo on LinkedIn:
share-your-photo.com/d6790dc0fe
linkedin.com/in/jonathan-carter-960776b8/?originalSubdomain=uk
Another photo from Twitter:
share-your-photo.com/5f08b2459e
Here is a direct comparison:
share-your-photo.com/31f5638b6c
Sometimes Jonathan Carter is also a woman. Google saved six previous photos from his LinkedIn profile. Here are just three out of six:
share-your-photo.com/ee1fc14a8e
Which photo is authentic? A serious businessman wouldn’t act like that.
Addition to comments #13 and 18
Today is February 26th. Now FIERCE PC LIMITED has three directors:
Screenshot from today:
share-your-photo.com/07cd7013a9
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08971719/officers
Video by OneCoin scammer Satendra Kumar Saini from India with English subtitles:
share-your-photo.com/e7ee62f1ed
Partial quote:
youtube.com/watch?v=0zbXm1vX5yM
share-your-photo.com/8e274595fb
variety.com/2022/tv/global/cryptoqueen-ruja-ignatova-documentary-1235305616/