Can new evidence finally solve the mystery of what happened to the world's most wanted woman? one, two, three! applause, please! cheering and applause it's really a pleasure for me to be here one and a half years after we launched our cryptocurrency, onecoin, and we already wrote history — but this is just the beginning. This is dr ruja ignatova, the founder of a cryptocurrency called onecoin. This coin is going to be number one worldwide. We will be the biggest out there. Cheering and applause promising huge returns, onecoin claimed to have more than three million investors worldwide. For me to go to wembley, it was, wow. Ferraris, lamborghinis. Iwas like. . . Again, like, it was like hollywood. We will double the coins in your account. There was the hype that you invest in onecoin, put money into onecoin, and then, see, you can buy villas, you can buy nice cars. Thank you very much. Thank you. Ruja ignatova launched onecoin from the bulgarian capital sofia ten years ago. She became known as the cryptoqueen, and said her new currency was part of a financial revolution. Jamie bartlett: cryptocurrency is a sort of digital cash, a sort of brand—new way to be able to create and send money, loads of excitement and hype about it, and that dragged in millions of ordinary people. I wanted to be a part of that. I actually went and opened a bank account, and i used the £2,000 overdraft from the bank, which i invested in 0necoin in the hope that, you know, that will solve my financial problems because, at that time, i was £20,000 in debt and i was not even earning ten grand a year. But onecoin wasn't ever really a cryptocurrency. What it was was a ponzi scheme, a very old—fashioned scam, and a very simple scam, which is take investment from new investors and use that investment to pay the old investors a bit of a return, and you just keep that going for as long as possible, always taking a percentage for yourself. Ruja ignatova and the leaders of onecoin stole $4. 5 billion from their investors. 70,000 in the uk are believed to have lost £100 million between them. I lost all of my money. Um, for some people, £2,000, it might not be a big deal, but for me, it was a really big deal. And then, on top of that, i had to keep borrowing money from the banks. It was a really, really sad, embarrassing and depressing moment of my life. The onecoin scam is one of the biggest frauds in history. The fbi and specialist criminal investigators from the internal revenue service launched an inquiry in 2016. Forfive years, i've been investigating onecoin and dr ruja. Still don't really know what the hell happened. And finally, someone from the authorities, who's been investigating it, has actually agreed to speak to me about what really happened. It's definitely the most interesting story i came across in 26 years. Just unbelievable characters. They're duping people left and right, and you're like, how did they get away with it? when you first saw dr ruja, what did you think of her? you knew you were looking at a fraudster. Oh, i think it was a scam from day one. If you look at where all the money ended up, it ended up in her pockets. Private jets. We heard about apartments filled with cash. She had a yacht that was worth several million dollars. Multimillion dollar mansions, every one. So dubai, london, germany are the three main ones we knew about. Ruja's lifestyle of yachts and waterfront mansions was funded by the billions she stole from onecoin investors. Ruja's problem is that she's getting billions of euros in, and she needs to somehow launder it. She needs to turn it into money she can use, unconnected to onecoin. So she's got this really sophisticated system of trying to launder all of the proceeds of the onecoin investors. Money from onecoin was laundered through a series of property deals and offshore companies. To help stay one step ahead of the law, ruja recruited a controversial figure from luxembourg. The way i understood frank schneider's role was like intelligence/security for ruja. Frank schneider is a former top spy. Frank had contacts, knew how the darker side of this world actually worked. The word spy already has. Quite a negative connotation because it actually means doing something a bit sleazy. I don't know what happened. I don't know. I took a client, took the wrong client. I i took. . . I said yes to the wrong person. I'm not saying that i wasn't attracted by the potential. Financial gains. I mean, of course. Ruja was very brilliant,. Extremely smart, but her success was accompanied by all sorts of problems, i specifically her boyfriend, gilbert. We found out, pretty. Much at the beginning, that gilbert was a problem. Ruja had been tipped off that her boyfriend, gilbert armenta, had been arrested in the us for money laundering. She was worried he might talk. Frank, or ruja, bought the townhouse above gilbert to specifically have spies in there listening in on what gilbert was doing. This was a very sophisticated woman. This was not your run—of—the—mill white collar criminal. So we get all these phone calls that ruja has been secretly recording of her talking to her boyfriend, gilbert armenta. While ruja didn't trust gilbert, she didn't yet know the full story. He's working with the fbi and the irs, recording calls too, to try to get information out of ruja. This is not like a three or four phone call conversation. This is over a period of several weeks, and you're just listening to the conversation as it's happening. Rob byrne: at this point, we can see that ruja was pretty paranoid, and rightly so. Everything seems to be going wrong, really wrong at this point. By 2017, more than ten police forces around the world, including the bulgarians, were investigating onecoin. It's believed corrupt officers were leaking information to ruja ignatova. Ruja had good connections. In bulgaria to the intelligence service — they were to. The prosecutor's office, they were to the police. We knew early on she had ears all over the place. Like, she. . . Even in some law enforcement, she had ears. During one phone call with ruja, on october the 24th, 2017, gilbert armenta let slip he was secretly working for the americans. Oh, it was a slip of the tongue. It was definitely a slip of the tongue. He went off script, something to the effect of, i'm just trying to keep these cops off my ass, basically. And then. . . Click. There was no goodbye or you're a scumbag or i know what you're up to — it was just click, gone. Disconnected tone there's just not a trace. You never heard her voice again? nope. That was it. My relationship with ruja ended brutally on the 25th _ of october, 2017, when, from that day onwards, i ruja was no longer to be seen. . . . . And disappeared from the face of the earth. . The last time anyone�*s ever seen ruja, she gets on a very early ryanair flight from sofia airport travelling to athens, with a bodyguard, disembarks the plane in greece, tells her bodyguard to go back to bulgaria, and that is the last time where anyone knows for sure where she was. Is she running from investors? is she running from the authorities? in my mind, there's no doubt she was running from us authorities. I said to ruja, why. Do you have to leave? you are safe in bulgaria. And she said, i have to. There will be a police raid. I don't have any choice. Since ruja ignatova's disappearance, more than 100 people have been arrested for their part in the onecoin scam, and, like, gilbert armenta, some have been convicted of financial crimes. Ruja's former spy chief, frank schneider, is now facing extradition to the us, accused of fraud and money laundering. Given the forces arrayed against you, have you ever thought about running? no, that's. . . That's. . . That's just not an option. I mean, where do you run here in this world, you know? it's. . . How on earth would i. . . ? no. The fact that he was potentially facing the rest of his life injail in america, so he was backed into a corner, i suppose he felt then it was in his best interests to speak to us. But you can only deduce he knows a hell of a lot more than he told us. During our interview, frank schneider claimed ruja ignatova had been working with organised crime. They were, um, i crooks, gangsters. But who? because you said you could identify them? yes. No, i'm not going to tell you| who, because i have a family and i have kids and i have i a wife, and security reasons, too, so i'm not. . . This is real serious organised crime. L now the bbc has obtained secret europol documents suggesting ruja and onecoin had links to an alleged organised crime boss. There's this mysterious name that keeps popping up all over the place. He has all of these sort of strange connections to onecoin and to ruja, and it's so confusing as to who this man really is. His name isjust taki. His nickname is the bulgarian cocaine king. Taki came up more than once. It wasn't like it was a one—off. That was a recurring theme. That name? yeah. Just kept popping up? yep. He was the head of whatever this drug organisation was. Better known as taki, hristoforos amanatidis is widely suspected of leading a bulgarian organised crime group. Police say they have investigated him for murder, armed robbery and drug trafficking, but there have been no prosecutions. Rob byrne: taki is| a mysterious figure. At one stage, interpol were after him on drug—related charges — but that interpol red notice, we understand, is no longer active, so no—one's ever really nailed him for anything. And i'm thinking, why is this taki character involved with onecoin? what have they got to do with each other? well, the fbi do refer to an international drug smuggler who is in charge of ruja's security. And our understanding is that that is taki. Why would a suspected big—time drugs guy be providing the physical security for a woman in bulgaria? i'll give you your security if you launder my money. So you know she's well protected. As in most, let's call them mafia environments. . . . . Like in a classic kind of chicago movie, you have to buy yourself protection. And the bigger it gets, the more dangerous it becomes. Journalist dimitar stoyanov is working with the bbc. He's been investigating ruja's relationship with the bulgarian underworld. Dimitar can't prove taki's involvement in organised crime, but through his gangland sources, he's convinced taki's a big player with close connections to ruja. So there are a lot of unanswered questions when it comes to ruja and taki's relationship. People say they were very close. For example, that he was the godfather of her daughter. Police documents and bulgarian property records also reveal a series of financial deals between ruja and members of taki's family. So there seems to be a financial relationship. Is it ruja that's helping taki and getting protection? is it the fact that she's helping him move money? clearly there's something mutually beneficial going on here. So taki just seems to sort of grow and grow and grow in this story. It's not known how taki and ruja met or whether he was involved with onecoin from the start. Ivan hristanov: taki is a ghost _ you never see him. You only hear him. He is talking to you through other people. You don't listen, you just disappear from earth. In 2022, this former bulgarian minister investigated allegations taki ran a significant criminal network with help from corrupt officials. When we talk about taki, taki is the head of the mafia in bulgaria. He is extremely powerful. The state, the political establishment and the mafia became one and the same thing. It became one body. It's obvious that bulgarian agencies worked for this couple, ruja and taki. The only person who can protect her from all those investigations, including from foreign agencies, it was taki. The bbc wrote to the bulgarian government. It didn't respond. The prosecutor's office in sofia says it. . . Five years after ruja ignatova disappeared, the fbi offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to her arrest. Reporter: ruja ignatova, an international fugitive i who allegedly masterminded i a vast worldwide fraud scheme, is being added to the fbi's top ten most wanted list. Why is she on that list? i mean, with the biggest criminals in the world? i mean, osama bin laden's been on that list. Is it because of a scam, a big scam, or is it because of the people she's associated with, the big time criminals, the darker world that maybe she's actually part of? is the fbi still receiving tip—offs and leads? i know of two that we acted on, but they turned out to be nothing. One completely off the wall, one somewhat credible, followed up — nothing. It was just another bad lead. Nobody knows where she is, and that's the whole allure to this thing. Even some of the biggest drug lords in the world can't hide from the authorities forever. The very fact that the fbi can only say that she landed in greece and we have no idea where she went after that point shows that there was serious planning. I know there was an exit strategy to leave greece. You can't pull that off on a moment's notice. That has to be in place. Who is the person that you think would know about that exit strategy? if i were a betting man, i'd think that person would be frank schneider. Rob byrne: from early on in the story, a lot of people described frank schneider as the man behind the curtain, the wizard of oz. I didn't trust frank. He's a spy. He's skilled in deception. Law enforcement agencies could come and find me, i but i couldn't tell them where she was because i don't know where she is. So i have a theory or a hypothesis i that she no longer lives. One of dimitar�*s sources, a criminal associate of taki's known as kuro, claimed to have information about ruja's disappearance. Kuro had obtained a secret police report and handed it to dimitar. It alleged taki's brother—in—law had been overheard discussing ruja. According to the document, he drunkenly said that taki had had ruja murdered. . . . . Ruja was killed on a yacht off greece, her body was dismembered and chucked in the sea. I mean, if it's true, it's horrific, no matter what she did, and it really would change the complexion of the story because the person who defrauded investors out of billions, potentially herself has become a victim. The key question is why would taki kill her? well, one possible answer is that she already knew too much. If, in the mafia, you become a liability, you're butcheredl and you're thrown to sinkj at the bottom of the sea. Knowing how violent cartels are, if he thought she was a threat to him and he had access to her, 100%, i would. . . He would probably take her out. But do i know that? no. But that would make sense. If she's dead, i have to believe it's somebody close to her who knew where her funds. . . Or knew how to access her funds, or where they were — one of the two. While the billions ruja ignatova stole have not been recovered, property records and eyewitnesses suggest taki's associates are now living in her bulgarian mansions. After publishing evidence taki had ordered ruja's murder some time around 2018, death threats again forced dimitar into hiding. Reporter: developments in the murder of four bulgarians in the leafy suburb of constantia. I a couple, their housekeeper and a bodyguard were foundj with gunshot wounds to their heads. For many years, taki's associate kuro had been living in south africa. In 2023, he was assassinated. The bbc has spoken to people close to him. They say he talked to the cia about ruja, and the information had leaked. Certain people had to be removed because they knew too much about taki. It was a kind of a public execution that looked more like a statement — be careful who you deal with. I don't even know how deep this all goes. I don't even know quite how powerful these people really are and what lengths they would go to to stop someone exposing them. Taki has never been arrested over claims he had the cryptoqueen murdered. Bulgarian police say they don't have enough evidence. The bbc wrote to taki's lawyers about the allegations in this film. They didn't respond. In the years after ruja is said to have been murdered, there have been several reported sightings of her. There was even a police raid in greece in 2022. But still nothing. The one thing that is clear from this story is that people are either ending up injail, they're ending up dead, or they're disappearing. I get a call from someone saying, frank schneider, ruja's top spy, has disappeared. He's vanished. He's gone on the run. Ruja's mr fixer has done exactly the same thing as his old boss. Hejust disappeared into thin air. The onecoin story plays out like a crime thriller, but the consequences for millions of investors are all too real. They took the money, but, actually, up until now, i've never even thought that she. . . . . Her money could be linked with organised crime. How come fbi can't find her? ruja ignatova remains the world's most wanted woman, and the fbi is still looking for her. Only her arrest or proof of her death will solve the mystery of the missing cryptoqueen. No body has ever been found. Whether ruja is dead or not, it's very hard to be sure about this. It could be this is just another brilliant manoeuvre to throw everyone off the scent, and i wouldn't put it past her to do that, but it's more and more likely that, actually, she's dead. We're chasing a shadow. At some point, it becomes like elvis presley might be still alive. Ruja might be still alive on some distant island with young boys around her. It's not really very likely. She messed with the wrong guys. Live from washington. This is bbc news. Israel's military announces it has found several bodies underground in the gaza strip, but hasn't confirmed if they're the remains of hostages. Reports from eastern ukraine say at least eight people have been killed on saturday and many more injured in a barrage of russian attacks. Vice president kamala harris accuses donald trump of disrespecting sacred ground following an incident at arlington national cemetery. Hello, i'm helena humphrey. It's great to have you with us. The israeli military announcing it has found several bodies underground in the gaza strip. The idf has not confirmed whether they are the remains of israeli hostages held by hamas. Israel says the bodies were discovered during combat and its military is working to extract and identify them, which will take several hours. Us presidentjoe biden addressed the media in the state of delaware just a short while ago. My staff have been in contact with the israelis and discovered bodies in gaza. Not sure the exact number. They have not taken them out yet. They wanted to identify the bodies. A lot of speculation as to who they are and names, i am not at liberty to do that at the moment. It is time this war ended, we should end this war. We are on the verge of having an agreement. It is time to end it. Palestinian health workers in gaza have started vaccinating some babies against polio, a day before