[imagesource:Universal News & Sport]

The stories about Ruja Ignatova‘s whereabouts are as wild as the scheme she pulled off.

Some say she’s enjoying the high life in Dubai. Others insist she was murdered at sea back in 2018. Then there’s the theory she was fatally shot in a Constantia mansion just last year. Or perhaps she underwent plastic surgery and is quietly hiding out in one of Cape Town’s most exclusive neighbourhoods.

All this because the ‘Cryptoqueen’ and mastermind of OneCoin pulled off a billion-dollar fraud that’s left authorities in the US and beyond scrambling to bring her to justice.

Ignatova is arguably the world’s most wanted woman, with the US offering a $5-million reward to see to it that she is arrested and convicted. But if she is murdered, as the reports go, then this wild goose chase is for nought.

However, the police in Germany have confirmed to Daily Maverick that they are looking into whether she may be alive – and in South Africa.

Clues about Ignatova’s possible hideout in Cape Town have sparked fresh intrigue. German media, including a recent documentary and an article by Der Spiegel on 8 November 2024, revealed that police now believe reports of her death were false. Instead, they’re chasing leads suggesting she’s right here right now.

On Friday, 15 November, Daniela Dässel, a spokesperson for the State Criminal Police Office of North Rhine-Westphalia, confirmed these suspicions to Daily Maverick. She stated that in the absence of solid evidence to the contrary, authorities assume Ignatova is alive and actively continuing their search for her.

Tracing words of whereabouts is like trying to hit a mole in a hole. When Bulgarian Krasimir Kamenov – a man wanted in Bulgaria in connection with a murder – was killed in his Constantia home in May 2023 with his wife Gergana, and two of their employees, several theories and suspicions were sparked.

Besides the theories about why the four were murdered – from Kamenov’s name surfacing in international State Capture-type plots, to local gangsters targeting him and Kamenova as part of a robbery, and possible ties to dodgy diamond dealings, DM also heard that some “individuals suspected – or peddled the idea – that Ignatova was among those shot dead in the Kamenov home”.

After this murder spree, there were also rumours that Ignatova had fled to Dubai or that she had changed her look with plastic surgery and was hiding out in Constantia.

A “wanted” flyer from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) states: “Ignatova is believed to travel with armed guards and/or associates. Ignatova may have had plastic surgery or otherwise altered her appearance.”

Whispers of conspiracy also suggest that international intelligence agencies might be shielding the Cryptoqueen, deliberately feeding false leads and outlandish stories about her whereabouts to keep the truth hidden.

Despite the buzz, nothing substantial ever surfaces to back up the theories, leaving the truth about her location as elusive as ever.

The rumours about her being killed out at sea in 2018 also tie into Kamenov’s murder. See, he was accused of being involved in the killing of a former policeman, Lyubomir Ivanov, in March 2022.

Following this, documents suggesting Ignatova had been murdered on a yacht in the Ionian Sea were found in Ivanov’s home, which the Bureau of Investigative Reporting and Data in Bulgaria, a partner in the global Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, said were present as Ivanov had been its source for police reports about Ignatova’s apparent murder. Kamenov was apparently a source of information about Ignatova’s claimed murder, too.

The web of murder is a lot to keep track of. What remains certain is that Ruja Ignatova vanished without a trace in October 2017 and there are a few authorities, German police aside, who believe she is actually alive.

The Cape Town rumours are also headed by Ignatova’s younger brother, Konstantin Ignatov, who took over heading OneCoin and visited the Mother City straight after she effectively disappeared. He posted about it on Instagram:

He ended up getting arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in 2019, and later convicted in the US for his role in OneCoin. At the time of his arrest, he was with Duncan Arthur, a citizen of both Ireland and South Africa, who claimed Konstantin had been in touch with his sister all that time:

“I know that Konstantin was in regular and direct phone contact with Ruja as late as March 2019, long after the alleged murder plot,” Arthur claimed in a February 2023 document addressed to Bulgaria’s Department of Justice.

The plot appears to be thickening…

[source:dailymaverick]