Decrypt’s Art, Fashion, and Entertainment Hub recently shared some intriguing insights about Ruja Ignatova, known as the “Cryptoqueen.” A journalist who focuses on Kremlin affairs believes she might be hiding out in Russia to dodge criminal charges.

Ignatova, a Bulgarian entrepreneur, started OneCoin. This was a fraudulent cryptocurrency pyramid scheme that reportedly scammed investors out of around $4 billion. She vanished in 2017 and hasn’t been seen publicly since.

Yoran Tsalov, a former investigator with Bellingcat, mentioned in an email to Decrypt that Ignatova has ties to several people and interests connected to the Kremlin. He claims that Frank Schneider, her former security adviser, confirmed these links in a BBC interview as part of the Missing CryptoQueen investigation.

Schneider, who used to work as a spy for Switzerland, later founded a private investigation firm that OneCoin hired. He was placed under house arrest in France due to his involvement with the scheme but managed to escape in 2023.

Additionally, Tsalov pointed out that the BBC investigation found some companies involved in laundering money through OneCoin were linked to Viktor Yanukovich, the former pro-Russian president of Ukraine. Yanukovich was sentenced to 13 years in prison for treason in absentia by Ukraine’s highest court in 2019. He is widely believed to have amassed a large network of offshore assets through corruption and now lives in exile in Russia.

Tsalov emphasized that Schneider successfully avoided extradition. He argued that if Schneider could orchestrate his escape from France while awaiting extradition to the U.S., then Ignatova could certainly arrange her own disappearance from Bulgaria.

This perspective is Tsalov's personal opinion and may not reflect the views of the BBC team involved in the investigation. He added that it might be easier for those involved to keep Ignatova alive to manage their assets through her.

There are many theories about where the missing Cryptoqueen could be. A November 2024 article from German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that German authorities are looking for a woman in South Africa. Meanwhile, some Bulgarian police reports suggest she may have been dismembered on a yacht and thrown into the Ionian Sea.

Many high-profile fugitives have evaded extradition in Russia for years, including the well-known U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden, who has lived there since 2013.

In related news, a report alleges that a money laundering organization linked to U.S. cocaine imports from Mexico and Colombia uses Tether (USDT). Drug traffickers have increasingly turned to cryptocurrency, especially USDT, to quickly move wealth across borders, according to a recent Court Watch report. The report claims that criminal organizations, including the Sinaloa cartel, use these assets for extensive drug trafficking.

Additionally, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced it secured a record $8.2 billion in penalties for the fiscal year 2024. Over half of that amount, $4.5 billion, came from the case against Terraform Labs and its founder, Do Kwon, who was responsible for the collapse of the Terra blockchain ecosystem. Without that settlement, the SEC’s financial remedies would have been the lowest since 2013, totaling $3.72 billion.

Lastly, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are set to lead a new U.S. government initiative called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This initiative aims to reduce the federal budget deficit. Interestingly, the acronym DOGE matches the ticker for Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin. The initiative will focus on cutting unnecessary regulations, eliminating wasteful spending, and restructuring federal agencies, although some details about the project are still unclear.