A decade ago, Dr. Ruja Ignatova gained notoriety with her deceptive cryptocurrency project, OneCoin. Millions worldwide entrusted the Bulgarian-born German entrepreneur with their life savings, believing wholeheartedly in her vision for a new digital currency. Then, in 2017, Dr. Ignatova boarded a plane in Sofia, Bulgaria, and disappeared. She has not been seen since. Authorities remain uncertain about Dr. Ignatova’s fate. She is now the FBI’s most wanted woman, accused of fraud and allegedly absconding with over $4 billion from investors across 175 countries.
Currently, the BBC has conducted an investigation aimed at uncovering what happened to Dr. Ignatova. The investigation spanned more than a year, revealing her close connections to a suspected Bulgarian organized crime leader – 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 initiated the OneCoin investigation 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 flew from Bulgaria to Athens with Taki, her bodyguard, but only the bodyguard returned. “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 prominent figure in Bulgaria
Taki is a prominent figure in Bulgaria, akin to El Chapo or Pablo Escobar. He is widely believed to be the leader of the Bulgarian organized crime network and a major drug smuggler. Documents accessed by the BBC indicate that 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 is now reportedly living in Dubai. Bulgarian insiders said Ms. Ignatova paid him 100,000 euros monthly for protection. However, Ms. Ignatova’s protector might have become an aggressor. Citing a 2022 report by Bulgarian investigative journalist Dimitar Stoyanov, the BBC stated that Ms. Ignatova was killed a year after her disappearance. The journalist presented a police report detailing overhearing Taki’s brother-in-law drunkenly claiming that Ms. Ignatova had been murdered on Taki’s orders in late 2018, and her body dismembered and disposed of off a yacht in the Ionian Sea. Numerous criminal associates of Taki asserted that Ms. Ignatova had become a liability for him.
Property records indicate that since Ms. Ignatova’s disappearance, several of her properties are now utilized by individuals linked to Taki. Taki has never been arrested over the allegations of Ms. Ignatova’s murder. Her body has never been found, and investigators assert they lack sufficient evidence to prosecute him. Nonetheless, rumors persist that the news of her death is yet another clever ruse to mislead everyone.
