PANews reported on November 27 that according to Decrypt, a BBC investigative reporter focusing on Kremlin affairs reported that the missing "Crypto Queen" Ruja Ignatova may be hiding in Russia to evade criminal charges. Yoran Tsalov, who also works for Bellingcat, revealed to the media that Ignatova "is associated with multiple people and interest groups in the Kremlin."
Tsalov claims that these connections were confirmed in an interview given by Ignatova’s former security advisor Frank Schneider to the BBC as part of the BBC’s “Missing Crypto Queen” investigation and podcast series. Schneider was a former spy for Switzerland who later founded a private investigation firm and was hired by OneCoin. He was placed under house arrest in France for his connection to the operation and subsequently went on the run in 2023. In addition, Tsalov claims that the BBC’s ongoing investigation confirms that some of the companies that laundered money through OneCoin are linked to Ukraine’s former pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovich, who currently lives in exile in Russia.
It is reported that OneCoin was launched in 2014, and Ignatova defrauded investors around the world through a $4 billion Ponzi scheme until the scam collapsed in 2017 and she disappeared. She was last seen in 2017 when she was on a plane fleeing Bulgaria to Athens, Greece, and was included in the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
