Bulgaria fobs Ruja Ignatova off to Germany (PR disaster)
Bulgarian authorities have taken the extraordinary step of disowning OneCoin Ponzi founder Ruja Ignatova.
Ignatova, who was born in Bulgaria, held dual Bulgarian-German citizenship.
In an April 18th press-release, Bulgaria’s Ministry of the Interior declared Ignatova has been “released from Bulgarian citizenship.”
The MOI goes on to confirm that Ignatova is wanted by German authorities.
The Bulgarian citizen Ruzha Ignatova, born in Bulgaria, has been declared internationally wanted at the request of the authorities in the Federal Republic of Germany.
It has been reported to the Schengen Information System (SIS) and is aimed at arrest and extradition on the basis of a European Arrest Warrant issued by a court in Bielefeld, Germany.
Ignatova is wanted for criminal activity related to commercial fraud, progressive customer recruitment and money laundering by creating and distributing OneCoin virtual currency.
In addition to being wanted by Germany, Ignatova is has been indicted in the US too.
The Bielefeld Public Prosecutor’s Office’s investigation into OneCoin surfaced in 2017.
As part of that investigation, which has since led to Frank Ricketts’ criminal trial, OneCoin’s offices in Sofia were raided in 2018.
Rather than conduct their own investigation and lead the raids, Bulgarian authorities served as chaperones for German investigators.
In fact to this day, OneCoin continues to operate the pyramid side of its Ponzi scheme through the same raided Sofia offices.
It is through this prism that it’s difficult to see Ignatova being stripped of citizenship, as nothing more than a belated PR stunt.
OneCoin launched in 2014. Having done absolutely nothing about it up to this point, Bulgaria now appears to want to disassociate itself from the $4 billion Ponzi.
The fact of the matter though is Ruja Ignatova is Bulgarian. OneCoin originated from within Bulgaria and OneCoin continues to be operated from within Bulgaria.
OneCoin is Bulgaria’s mess and it needs to clean it up. It is absolutely shameful it is left to the US and Germany to regulate a multi-billion Bulgarian Ponzi scheme.
Continued inaction by Bulgarian authorities is a stain that cannot be removed through stripping Ignatova of citizenship.
It is one of the worst, if not the worst, example of ongoing MLM related regulatory incompetence I have ever seen.
As noted in the MOI’s press-release “the search for a 41-year-old German citizen, born in Bulgaria, continues”.
As at time of publication, leading theories are Ruja Ignatova is dead, or hiding in Dubai or Russia.
She is believed to be living on fake ID documents, and has possibly had additional cosmetic surgery since disappearing in 2017.
I’ve gone with dual-citizenship on the basis I can’t see the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior revoking citizenship that had already been cancelled.
This is awesome. It’s similar to cases in which the US media presents a criminal as xxx-american when captured.
But a successful entrepreneur is American even if that person was born abroad. XD
Well done Bulgaria.
Has anyone noticed that DealShaker has removed the number tag for however many people are logged-in?
It was rather embarassing.
The number logged in on the new site never went above 25 and frequently dropped to zero. This would be despite DS “expos” taking place. In theory, all transactions are supposed to happen on the site and by registered users. X number of people transact at one time but nobody logs-in? Yeah right.
How do you get DealShaker wrong? It has a captive audience. Etsy sells worse stuff. DS is promoted all over. It used to be profitable and paid for the London RavenR office and the upkeep of Ruja’s very impressive collection of Kensington real estate
@Carlos Also compare:
“Super Brit Andy Murray triumphs at Wimbledon”
vs
“The 34-year-old Scot was disappointed with his third-round exit…”
(© All English newspapers)
Actually, she would have expatriated a long time ago for tax reasons. They could not have stripped her of citizenship as she was born in Bulgaria and the EU Charter applies. All they are doing is stating that the Germans want her. But so does the SDNY. The real question is why OneCoin continues to operate in Sofia.
This is interesting! Who knew such a Bulgarian website might even exist? Or that it might have the same questions as we, ourselves?
Send to give a bit of clarity in exactly how such a defection or revocation of Bulgarian citizenship might be carried out though:
bulgarian-citizenship.org/news/ruja-ignatova-bulgarian-citizen/
@Tim Tayshun
WhistleBlowerFin mentioned this yesterday:
https://behindmlm.com/companies/onecoin/doj-seeks-to-notify-onecoin-victims-of-crim-proceedings/#comment-451998
Actually I stand corrected, Bulgarian taxes are supposedly very low, so why indeed would she voluntarily resign citizenship?
https://www.bulgarian-citizenship.org/advantages/low-taxes/
Taxes play no role in the case of Ruja. Even if she paid taxes, EU citizens pay taxes in the country of residence, regardless of citizenship.
If you’re a German, but live and work in Bulgaria, you pay taxes in Bulgaria because you’re considered a Bulgarian tax resident regardless of your citizenship.
I still believe that the Ignatov family voluntarily relinquished their Bulgarian citizenship in the 90s when they migrated to Germany, long before OneCoin.
Either way this is a calculated distraction and it’s irrelevant. When the US authorities want to arrest you, it doesn’t matter to them whether you have a German, Bulgarian, or Burkina-Fasoan citizenship.
Once you crawl up in a friendly jurisdiction, you get on the federal express to the United States.
Ruja Ignatova has been added to Europol’s “Europe’s most wanted fugitives” -list:
eumostwanted.eu/#/ignatova-ruja
German Nordrhein-Westfalen police warrant for Ruja.
polizei.nrw/fahndung/79251
Ruja is also now on Interpol Red Notice list on the public side:
interpol.int/en/How-we-work/Notices/View-Red-Notices#2020-9611
The FBI most wanted would be the cherry on the cake!
Thanks for the updates guys.