In an attempt to score a PR gig for OneCoin, Ruja Ignatova took out corporate sponsorship for the Congress of South East European Women Entrepreneurs’ upcoming March 8th event.

The Congress will be held on … 8th of March 2017 in Zagreb and we expect more than 500 woman entrepreneurs from Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia.

Our goal is to make better access and existence of woman´s enterprises on the market of their country but also in the region.

The Congress’ annual event is held with assistance with the Croatian capital city of Zagreb, ‘under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Croatia Ms. Grabar Kitarovic‘.

How much of stolen investor funds Ignatova spent on OneCoin’s sponsorship of the event is unclear.

At the time of publication OneCoin’s logo is featured prominently on the Congress’ website:

As part of OneCoin’s sponsorship, Ignatova was also scheduled to speak at the event. Following an investigation by the organizer of the Congress event, it now appears Ignatova has been dropped as a speaker.

As per an email received from one of the organizers, Ignatova was introduced to the Congress following a recommendation from the “Bulgarian Business women association”.

I’m not 100% sure, but I believe this might be the Bulgarian Association of Women Entrepreneurs.

If so, why they’re putting forward the head of a Ponzi scheme as Bulgaria’s top female entrepreneur is a mystery.

In any event, Congress organizers obtained Ignatova’s contact details from the Bulgarian Embassy in Zagreb and got in contact.

Mrs. Ruja Ignjatva was recommended from her own country representatives and who am I to judge.

Following inquiries by other Congress members, an internal investigation into the credibility of Ignatova was launched.

A big drawcard for the Congress’ event this year is the attendance of  Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, current President of Croatia.

Citing the need to ensure their event was honorable and devoid of “(black) marks of any kind”), Congress organizers dropped Ignatova following their research.

We said thank you to Mrs Ruja Ignjatova and after that she was out our agenda and our event.

She will not attend (the) Congress or have anything to do with our event.

The email links to a published agenda. OneCoin is still listed as the sole “general sponsor” of the event, however all references to Ignatova have been scrubbed.

The last event not organized by OneCoin Ignatova spoke at was the Fourth EU-Southeast Europe Summit. The event was organized by The Economist and held on October 15, 2015 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

As with Congress of South East European Women Entrepreneurs, Ignatova bought stage time through OneCoin’s Platinum Sponsorship of the event.

The aftermath of realizing they’d given speech time to the operator of a Ponzi scheme saw The Economist remove any reference to the event from their website.

In late 2016 The Economist told Norway’s largest newspaper the OneCoin PR disaster resulted in a change of policy for future events.

This event was organized by one of our agents.

We received assurances that the local Ruja Ignatova was a successful, serious and credible business woman, writes Jessica Brown, content and program manager in The Economist Group in the email.

In retrospect, we have tightened up our routines, and talk time is not associated sponsorship agreements, she adds.

No word on Ignatova getting dropped Congress of South East European Women Entrepreneurs event on either the OneCoin or OneLife websites, or their respective social media profiles.

Meanwhile it seems we’ve reached the point where even money isn’t enough to buy OneCoin credibility outside of their own hypey events…

 

Update March 8th 2017 – On the eve of the Congress event, the Croatian National Bank has issued an investment warning against OneCoin.

At the time of publication OneCoin is still the general sponsor of the Congress of South East European Women Entrepreneurs’ event.