Woman Who Disappeared With $4 Billion Linked To Bulgarian Underworld

Ten years ago, Dr Ruja Ignatova became famous with her fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme known as OneCoin. Millions globally trusted the Bulgarian-born Germen entrepreneur with their life savings, showing unwavering faith in her vision for a new online currency. Then, in 2017, Dr Ignatova boarded a plane in Sofia, Bulgaria, and vanished. She hasn't been seen since. Authorities still don't know what happened to Dr Ignatova. She is the FBI's most wanted woman after being charged with fraud, over accusations that she ran off with more than $4 billion (roughly Rs 31,580 crore) worth of investments from people in 175 countries.

Also Read | Who Is Ruja Ignatova And How She Disappeared?

Now, the BBC has carried out an investigation that seeks to answer the question - what happened to Dr Ignatova?

The investigation lasted for more than a year, said the BBC, which revealed her close ties to a suspected Bulgarian organised crime boss - Hristoforos Nikos Amanatidis, commonly known as Taki.

"We were told, allegedly a big-time drug guy was in charge of her physical security," Richard Reinhardt, who began the investigation into OneCoin for the US Internal Revenue Service alongside the FBI, told the BBC.

"Taki came up more than once, it wasn't like it was a one-off. That was a recurring theme," the now-retired officer said.

She boarded a plane in Bulgaria with Taki, her bodyguard, and flew to Athens. The bodyguard returned and she did not.

"We do have evidence that a very significant, if not the most prolific, drug trafficker of all time in Bulgaria, was closely linked to OneCoin - served as Ruja Ignatova's personal security guard," an assistant attorney told the outlet.

Taki is a big name in Bulgaria, like El Chapo or Pablo Escobar. He is widely suspected of being the head of the Bulgarian organised crime network and a prolific drug smuggler. 

In the documents accessed by the BBC, police suspect Taki of using OneCoin's financial network to launder the proceeds of drug trafficking.

"Taki is the ghost. You'll never see him. You only hear about him. He's talking to you through other people. If you don't listen, you just disappear from earth. The only person who can protect Ignatova from all those investigations, including from foreign agencies - it was Taki," said former Bulgarian deputy minister, Ivan Hristanov.

Taki now reportedly lives in Dubai. Bulgarian insiders said Ms Ignatova paid 100,000 euros (Rs 90.2 lakh) a month to him for protection.

But in the end, Ms Ignatova's protector may have turned aggressor.

Quoting a 2022 report by Bulgarian investigative journalist Dimitar Stoyanov, the BBC said that Ms Ignatova was killed a year after her disappearance.

The journalist presented a police report that details overhearing Taki's brother-in-law drunkenly saying Ms Ignatova had been murdered on Taki's orders in late 2018, and her body dismembered and dumped off a yacht in the Ionian Sea.

Many criminal associates of Taki claimed Ms Ignatova had become a liability for him. Property records show that since Ms Ignatova's disappearance, a number of her properties are now being used by people connected to Taki.

Taki has never been arrested over the claims of Ms Ignatova's murder. Her body has never been found and investigators say they don't have enough evidence to prosecute him.

However, rumours still circulate that the news of her death is another brilliant manoeuvre to throw everyone off the scent.