OneCoin’s Ruja Ignatova indicted in Bulgaria
Seven years after she disappeared, Bulgarian authorities have indicted OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova.
On Monday August 12th, the Sofia Prosecutor’s Office announced it had indicted Ignatova in absentia.
The investigation by the SCPO is for a criminal group and money laundering.
It was launched in connection with material received from foreign law enforcement authorities.
Ignatova is charged with having formed and led an organised criminal group in the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria in the period from 2014 to 2017, which was established for the purpose of committing investment fraud under the Ponzi scheme, as well as for a self-serving purpose.
[Ignatova] is to be detained for up to 72 hours upon identification.
What happens after 72 hours is unclear. Presumably Bulgarian authorities aren’t going to just release someone on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted list?
Who knows.
Bulgaria’s belated indictment of Ignatova follows a joint press-conference with the US back in June. To anyone who’s followed OneCoin proceedings globally, it’s not unreasonable to think the US had to twist the arm of Bulgarian authorities to get anything filed.
Bulgarian authorities have a long history of sheltering what was left of OneCoin after Ignatova fled in October 2017.
Up until recently, OneCoin was still operating out of it’s Sofia headquarters. Corporate, mostly Bulgarians, are believed to have relocated to Vietnam.
Earlier this month OneCoin’s current CEO, Ventsislav Zlatkov, made an appearance at a OneCoin event held in Mexico.
These days what’s left of OneCoin goes by “One Ecosystem”.
Only a handful of people attended the Mexico event but still; Why nobody has been able to shut OneCoin down once and for all is as big a mystery as Ruja Ignatova’s disappearance.
Not expecting much from Bulgaria’s indictment of Ruja but noting it here as a point of interest.
On 72 hours detainment – in Russia we have a similar law.
A person is detained for up to 72 hours, during which his/her identity is checked, and then the person gets charged with whatever it is.
After that a decision must be made whether a person shall be placed under arrest proper or a supervised release may be more appropriate.
Anyone with an IQ above 70 knows that the Bulgarians were forced to take this action. I am just shocked they did it at all.
If they were really serious they would have taken action 8 years ago. They would also have shut down One Ecosystem.
Convenient isn’t it that they waited until all the perps in One Ecosystem fled to Vietnam before taking this limited action against Ruja. At least it looks good on paper, but it stinks to high heavens.
Ah fair enough. Thanks for clarifying.
We have another country to cross off where she can’t be thanks to Dr Jonathan Levy and his persistent hounding of the Bulgarian and EU authorities
The timing of Ruja Ignatova being charged in absentia from Bulgaria does seem rather convenient timing, to say the least. IMO is hard not to question the motives behind these sudden moves and wonder why they were not made sooner.
It begs the question of why Bulgarian authorities did not act sooner in holding Ruja accountable for her actions.
It certainly does not inspire confidence in the effectiveness and efficiency of their justice system when she was responsible for such a massive and public multi billion dollar global fraud yet allowed to evade justice for so long, they had at least 8 years.
Furthermore, the timing of the onecoin victims class action lawsuit filed at a London High Court last week by the London law company Mishcon de Reya on behalf of over 400 onecoin claimants and worldwide freezing orders were placed on the defendants including Ruja Ignatova is also worth noting IMO.
It seems almost too coincidental. Again, it raises questions about the motives behind these legal moves from Bulgaria.
While it may appear to be a significant step in the pursuit of justice, the fact that there was no mention of her being charged in absentia from Bulgaria on the 26th June this year when it was announced by FBI and Bulgaria her bounty reward increased from $250,000 to $5 million at the same time (Ozedit: snip, see below)
Overall, it is clear that there are many questions surrounding the recent developments regarding Bulgaria charging her in absentia.
While it may look good on paper, the reality is that there are still many unanswered questions and lingering doubts about the true intentions behind these moves from Bulgarian authorities. Ruja to date has been protected from Bulgaria.
As Lynndel rightly pointed out, it all seems to stink to high heaven, and it remains to be seen whether justice will truly be served in this complex and convoluted saga.
Bulgarian prosecutors did reveal plans to charge Ruja in June.
Oz thanks for the correction.
The timing of the Bulgarian announcement is very questionable still.
It will be very interesting to see how this rolls on out.
I seriously doubt that the Bulgarian authorities care, much less know about, a civil freezing order in London.
If Ruja is (or was) there and they didn’t react to her going onto the FBI’s Most Wanted List, it would be very unusual for them to react
German journalist Martin Himmelheber points out in an article dated August 12, 2024 that the OneCoin scammers are still trying to sell worthless “educational packages”.
There are 21 packages on offer, costing between 110 and 27,500 euros. In addition, an activation fee of 30 euros is required for each package.
ibb.co/FmbpWQh and ibb.co/9sY9Nct
nrwz.de/schramberg/onecoin-gruenderin-ignatova-von-bulgarien-angeklagt/483827
On the website oneecosystem.eu, the numbers of new members are shown on the left. Of course, these figures are also fake, as the screenshots below show. The figures from September 2021 are completely identical to the figures from today!
New members on September 20, 2021.
ibb.co/jy0Bw8m
web.archive.org/web/20210920074136/https://portal.oneecosystem.eu/auth/login
New members on August 20, 2024.
ibb.co/gJsJ5dP
portal.oneecosystem.eu/auth/login
New video from the well-known German magazine DER SPIEGEL.
The reporter mainly reports on Ruja’s activities in Dubai. Of course, he can’t answer the question of where she actually lives.
ibb.co/XjN2tCX
youtube.com/watch?v=xc-xJS9D5YY