German police are reported to be following leads on Ruja Ignatova that point to South Africa.

Citing a soon to be released documentary from WDR, Spiegel reports on insight provided by the Düsseldorf State Criminal Police Office (LKA);

According to the report, the Düsseldorf State Criminal Police Office, which is leading the investigation into the “Kryptoqueen” in Germany , has examined the contents of the document and refuted one key point: the alleged executor of the murder order named in the documents was in custody in the Netherlands at the time of the alleged crime.

This information “of course contradicts the information in the document,” says LKA spokeswoman Sabine Dässel. “We assume or are working with the hypothesis that Ruja Ignatova is still alive.”

The “murder order” pertains to a previous report out of Bulgaria, claiming Ruja was murdered on the order of Christophoros Amanatidis-Taki in 2018.

This is also supported by the reactions within her family, with whom Ignatova has always maintained close contact.

Her daughter and sister are not mourned by her family members, so there is apparently “no information about Ruja Ignatova’s death” within the family.

Possibly tying in to the 2023 murder of a Bulgarian national who is reported to have been cooperating with “a foreign jurisdiction”, Spiegel goes on to report;

New clues about a possible place of refuge for the “crypto queen” are all the more explosive.

“We do not know where Ruja Ignatova is,” said LKA spokeswoman Dässel, but some clues led to South Africa.

Filmmaker von Mirbach’s research team also received a corresponding tip – from South African security circles. There were allegedly even sightings in an affluent area of ​​Cape Town.

According to his Instagram profile, Ignatova’s brother Konstantin was also in Cape Town in 2018, after her disappearance. To meet his sister and get instructions?

While it’s certainly possible, personally I’m not entirely sold on Ruja Ignatova hiding in South Africa.

For starters we’ve already seen Bulgarian organized crime can kill at-will in South Africa with no consequences. OneCoin is over, so what value is there in keeping Ignatova alive?

Surely it’d be cleaner to just have her disposed of and then transfer the money attached to her wherever?

If the money tied to Ignatova is being used as collateral, can someone on the FBI’s most wanted list buy enough protection in South Africa?

I can imagine this being the case with Dubai or Russia, but in South Africa I’m not sure. The FBI also has a $5 million bounty on Ruja’s head. I imagine that’d be highly enticing to any household staff.

In Russia and Dubai one could purchase human trafficked slaves. I suppose the same might be possible in South Africa but I’d imagine it’d be more difficult to keep under wraps long-term.

This is of course assuming there are insiders in South Africa who are in on Ruja’s living circumstances. It’s possible she’s there without anyone in the South African government or police force knowing.

All of that said I’m certainly not an expert of this sort of thing.

I’ll keep an open mind about Ruja being in South Africa (perhaps she’s within proximity of Frank Schneider there), but my money is still on Dubai or Russia.