Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency which have been known for its transparency and decentralization has gotten this reputation by staying this way since 2009 till date and in this spirit have other legit cryptocurrency have followed the same footprint of the cryptocurrency giant but even when we have a lot of successful legit cryptocurrency, there are some that have been used for scam purposes and have made the owners of the project millionaires in dollars and some even billionaires. I will be looking at a cryptocurrency project that made away with $15 billion rough estimate, but was confirmed to be $4 billion by the FBI. This is the cryptocurrency scam story of One Coin.
One coin, a cryptocurrency owned by One Coin Ltd registered in Bulgaria and One Life Network Ltd registered in Dubai with its founder Ruja Ignatova. This name might not be familiar to some people but she was an icon to her network of over 3 million investors. The cryptocurrency coin was built on a multilevel marketing scheme under the business name One Life Network Ltd.
The Person behind the Project
Dr. Ruja Ignatova, a then 36 year old woman who studied at oxford and had her PHD and was believed to had previously worked at McKenzie group. She was the founder of One Coin. She was known to make other financial advisors and high level bankers look like fools. The idea that the government had too much power to finance and blamed the big bank for the financial crises in the world. Well, she had a point since that is what cryptocurrency have been clamoring on, she leveraged on that in interviews, meet ups and seminars.
The Coin and the Scam
First, the very bad thing about most multilevel marketing schemes is that they do not have products to sell in most cases and when they do, it is very difficult to dispose them off for the money while being convinced to recruit more people they can also give that mandate to as they get commission from their referrals. Just like every other multilevel marketing scheme, the early people to get involved and start recruiting make the money while the down lines suffer once they can’t find recruits. The same strategy did One Life Network Ltd follow, as the company said it was teaching people about financial freedom. People were able to buy plans based on level and were told to recruit more people.
The financial educational packages start from as low as $100 to $100,000 and this packages contain tokens which people were made to believe that they be able to mine One Coin based on the package level purchased after which the token would go up in value. The token wasn’t built on the blockchain as it was believed to be and was not traded in any exchange. The company was trying to build its own exchange but it has been under construction for years. Also, it was noticed that the entire financial book packages were plagiarized with so many errors.
Recruiting from all continents was very fast as the technicality of the coin and its good marketing sellers were strong forces, coupled with the fact that Dr Ruja Ignatova built the company around her credentials. Inspirational speeches and financial experience.
Did Forbes Interview Dr Ruja Ignatova?
Well, every person who checked her name on Google always saw her face on Forbes front page and I would ask, why will Forbes interview someone who is into a shady network marketing scheme? Well, Forbes didn’t interview Dr Ruja Ignatova, She only paid for an advertisement in Forbes Bulgaria magazine and that was what she leveraged on to make people believe that she had been interviewed by Forbes.
The Missing Founder and the Indictment of the Successor
In 2017, Dr Ruja was going to give a speech in Lisbon but didn’t show up for the event. Her phone lines were not reachable and text messages proved futile. It is believed that she had to go into hiding because she was scared of big banks and the FBI coming for her because she was championing a movement against the old system of money but before she vanished, she is believed to have went away with $400 Million and was believed to have flew to Greece for safety (as at last flight route). Her brother, Constantine Ignatova who was her PA took over the company but in March 2019 he was arrested by the FBI for fraud after which the US authority announced that the company and anything associated with it was a fraud.
One Coin Continuous Journey
The Company might have lost its two leaders as well as other leaders being arrested or going into hiding, like Ruja’s lawyer who had been arrested for $50 million fraud. The company still finds a way to perform activities which still defrauds people of their money. In 2019, the company still hold a beauty show which the company said was sponsored by Vogue but this was not true. People who are recruited are made to believe that the founder had to hide from government officials who wanted to arrest her for being a voice and for innovating while the brother was accused wrongly just to nail him. The company is believed to still make at least $1 million every week even though the founder is missing.