2. The Bitcoin Killer

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This is uh yeah this is proper luxury but I mean this is looking out onto the sea. Oh god what a house. Well there's a security guard there. Hello. We're looking for the house of Dr. Ruja Ignatova. But I'd nest. Uh-huh. It's this one. Yeah. Okay. Do you know where she is? I have no idea where. Doesn't know where she is.

One family! You're amazing guys! In 2014, Dr. Ruja Ignateva, a business superstar, launched an ambitious new cryptocurrency called OneCoin. One coin promised banking for the unbanked. A financial revolution that could democratize money. And if you invest, you can become rich beyond your wildest dreams. And I believe we are a very special network because we We act as a family. One coin soon spread around the world. She was extremely powerful. Dr. Rouge looked Yeah. This is just the beginning.

Then, at the height of her fame in late 2017, Dr. Rouge disappeared. since we were warned for this. against the world. I'm Jamie Bartlett. This is the missing crypto queen. Episode two

Why did so many people invest in one coin? I've been called a lot of things. It was partly because they believed in Dr. Rouge. And probably the best thing that the press called me was one coin who Supposed to be the Bitcoin killer. Well, I must say I like it. In two years, nobody will speak about Bitcoin anymore. But they also believed in something else: a strange and exciting new technology called blockchain. We will launch a new blockchain than before.

You need to understand what a blockchain is. Hello. Hello, it's me. Oh, hello. You okay? Yeah. It's notoriously difficult to explain or understand this, so I thought if I can get my mum to understand blockchain, it will probably make sense to everyone. My mum has no interest in technology at all. At least that's what she always says. But she does always seem to ask very good questions about it. I sometimes check things that I write with her first, and if it passes the Jamie's Mum test

It's usually clear enough. So do you remember I was telling you about that cryptocurrency podcast I was doing? Yeah. And and I said that I uh that I was gonna write a description of this blockchain technology. I'm I'm here at the moment with Georgia. Hello Georgia. And and I was gonna I was gonna read it to you and then g ask you to So if you if it made sense or if you understood it. Okay. You you you you read it to me, Jamie, and then I will

Do my best to understand. Right, off you go. Okay. Why do you value the money that's in your pocket? It's because other people do. Money is worth something because other people think it is. Everything's about trust. So money, whether it's gold, Bank of England notes, or match sticks, only works when everybody else trusts it. Now for years people had tried to create a digital money that other people could trust, but it always failed.

This is because imagine if I created an online currency called the Jamie Dollar, what would stop me from giving myself a million Jamie Dollars or stealing your Jamie Dollars for me? Bitcoin was designed to be a solution to this problem, and that's why it became so popular. It has a special type of database called a blockchain, and a blockchain is like a huge book. And everyone who owns Bitcoin has their own copy of this book.

So every time a bitcoin is sent from me to Georgia, a copy of that transaction goes into everyone's book. People are excited about this because most normal databases, like an SQL database, has someone in charge who can change the entries. For example, me giving myself a thousand Jamie dollars. But blockchain is different to normal databases because nobody, not the banks or the governments, or the person who invents it. is in charge and can change it. It's run by the people who use it.

Now there's some very clever mathematics behind all of this, but it basically means that bitcoins can't be faked, they can't be hacked and they can't be double spent. So when people hold on to this digital money they can trust that it has some value. Alright, that's the end. Does that make sense to you? No, not really Jamie, I'm sorry. I don't even under the concept of how you sp where you would spend this. Well, imagine and rather than me saying I send my money to Georgia

And it's in the book, I could send my money to Tesco and now it's in Tesco's account and that's on the book. Uh okay, but do places like Tesco's accept Bitcoin then? Well no, no, but they might one day. So in the meantime, is this like a big experiment then? Maybe I need to work out a way of describing it better. I think so. But try again. Try again with a different approach. Never know. Okay, speak to you later. Bye. Bye. This all sounds quite complicated.

By the end of the series it will be a lot clearer. All that matters for now is that blockchain is what makes these cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin work. What gives them value is that they can't be deleted or manipulated by someone in charge. And that idea is making a lot of people very excited.

For its fans, this is a revolutionary new form of currency that isn't controlled by banks or governments. and if you get in early, it's the chance to make a fortune. It's a heady mix of spreading financial freedom and getting rich in the process, and sometimes it's hard to separate the two. But because it's quite technical, a lot of people are put off. The community of cryptocurrency is a bit arrogant, yeah. Dr. Rouge's genius, as she said in this interview from 2016.

Was to take all of this and make it available to the masses. So the idea was how to bring a good concept, an interesting concept. In Scotland. Jen McAdam, who'd made her first investment of a thousand euros in twenty sixteen, was getting more and more caught up in it, watching on her account as her coins went up and up in value. They appear in your account.

You see these coins, you think, oh you know, it's like seeing a hundred which I thought at the time like Bitcoin, you're like, Oh my goodness. Then it went up to five hundred Euros, a thousand Euros, five thousand euros and they all it went up all the way at that point to two hundred and twenty eight thousand. Two hundred and twenty eight thousand Euros for a package. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Hence why I ended up buying the Tycoon package. How much was that? Five thousand. So you went from one thousand and then you spent another five? How long after was one week. One week? Yeah. And already there's been through family and uh friends, but mostly friends, there's already a c a quarter a million um collectively who have purchased in one coin packages. Wow. A quarter of a million.

Something isn't quite right about this. Jen could only buy these one coin through these strange things called packages. People can trade their Bitcoin for pounds or dollars on public exchanges, or even use them to buy real world products. I've bought coffee with Bitcoin and thousands of shops around the world accept it as a form of payment.

But even though the price of Jen's one coin was going up quickly in value, just like bitcoins had, she couldn't actually exchange them into a usable currency or spend them on anything. They just sat there in her account. This is Bjorn Björke. Bjorn is a blockchain specialist who's worked for big businesses like Ernst and Young. It was the summer of two thousand thirteen. I had uh parental leave'cause I had gotten a daughter.

And um I used most of that rest of the year and most of twenty fourteen trying to hack Bitcoin. I was unable to hack it of course. But Bjorn became hooked. and started working full time in developing blockchain technologies. And then, in twenty sixteen, he was approached by a recruitment agent with a curious job offer. He said it was a uh cryptocurrency startup in uh Bulgaria. Hmm. He was interested in, you know, my profile and if I could fit as their global CTO chief technical officer.

And um if I was interested and I said, Well what's the company's name? And he didn't want to say it. There was a lot of good things, uh I would get an apartment in Bulgaria, I would get car. I would uh get uh a quite large salary. How how much? And uh probably about two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. uh yearly. Wow. So that was quite high. I was thinking, well w what is my job gonna be? Like what what are things that I'm gonna have to do for this company?

And I said well first of all they need a blockchain. They don't have a blockchain today. I said, What? You told me it was a cryptocurrency company. He's like, Yeah, there's a cryptocurrency and it's been running for a while, but they don't have a blockchain, so we need you to build a blockchain. So what are you assuming at this point? You're you've that that there's a database that they have created pr what, pretending to have a cryptocurrency but running it through a normal database? Exactly.

I said, what is the company's name? And then he said, it's one coin. I called back Monday morning. to tell them that I didn't want to take the position. This is right in beginning of October. October twenty sixteen. Yeah. And those dates are are very important when you go back and s and see what happened to the company around that time.

One family, today is really a very, very special day. On the first of October 2016, Rougeau was on stage in front of the whole community, releasing the new We will be switching on the new blockchain. One coin will become officially the number one cryptocurrency globally. So what does this mean though? On the first of October she's up there saying we're releasing a new blockchain.

Why does that date really matter? Rouge up on stage releasing the new blockchain, and six days later I'm being proposed as their new global CTO to build a blockchain for I know they didn't have a blockchain. They couldn't have. How serious is it? I'm trying to figure out how serious it is to say you've got a blockchain when you've only got a normal database. If you put something into a database. That can be changed.

You might have a log of the change, but you might also not have a log of the change. If you put something into a blockchain, you cannot change it ever. It's like carving something into stone. It's an irreversible system. So what does this mean then that someone who's running one coin, what are they therefore able to do if they're just running all this on a database rather than on a blockchain?

They can control the system. Does that mean they can manipulate the price and the and the trading and everything like that as well? There is no price to one coin, it's just a a number that Rougea came up with. And saying that that's the price of one coin. So were they just randomly setting pri you know, just saying numbers, saying prices that people were believing represented the value of their coin? Yes, exactly. It's pretty clever.

Don't you think it's quite co it's extremely clever. It's extremely scary to me that someone would invest in something that they don't understand. If you're gonna invest in cryptocurrencies, you need to know how a blockchain works. If you don't know how a blockchain works, you you're never investing, you're gambling.

In 2016, after investing 10,000 euros of her own money and encouraging friends and family to invest 250,000 of theirs. One coin investor Jen McAdam received an invitation from a stranger on the internet. He claimed to be a good Samaritan, someone who studied one coin carefully and wanted to speak to people who'd invested. Reluctantly, Jen agreed. One coin is not a cryptocurrency. There is no blockchain, and I can prove it to you.

Yes, there's a blockchain temp. I can prove it to you that there's not. Well then prove it to me! I'll fucking prove it. I have never met anybody like I I don't give a shit. It's a fucking scam. It's a fucking scam. The man was Timothy Curry. A Bitcoin enthusiast and advocate for cryptocurrency adoption. He believed that one coin would give cryptocurrencies a bad name and wanted to stop it. Biggest

scam in the world right now, do you understand? The way that you're speaking, it's disgusting and we're meant to and people have to take you serious. Aww come And now I'm in a hotel room in Glasgow, sitting with Jen as she listens back to that message. I understand what I'm talking about. I've investigated this can one coin more than three point nine because every minute.

What what is your name? Is it Tim? Is it Timothy? Is it Timothy Curry? You can look me up on LinkedIn. What what's your correct name? Timothy Glen Curry C U R R Y I I I'm not even taking in what he's really saying. This man's trying to help you. He's trying to help me. But I don't see it like that. I mean, wha how do you feel looking back at yourself? Oh kinda f I f I f I f I just feel I want the ground to open up and and uh because of what I know now.

Whe but that was me. I I f I think so I look at it and I go that who is that person? Who is that woman? And it's me. I didn't really know at that point still how blockchain technology works. So he sent me loads of information through, which took me three months to eventually go through and digest it to understand. You did start looking at you did start reading Oh yeah, uh huh. Once it started digesting then that's when serious red flags were were popping up.

So I w I started asking m my OneCoin leaders, was there a blockchain and I won't answer. And uh that's when I get the voice message back. Okay, Jen, is there a blockchain and where is it? His words are read by an actor. Yes, there is a blockchain. The reason they can't disclose it is mainly because One Life Group is a very big net.

And they don't want to disclose that kind of information just in case something goes wrong where the blockchain is being held. And plus, as an application, it doesn't need a server behind it. So it's our blockchain technology, a SQL server with a data. Well I knew at this point the the information that Tim had gave, I'd started to do my own research and and learn more about blockchain technology and I knew a SQL Server database couldn't create genuine cryptocurrency.

So to receive that voice message saying it was a SQL Server database with OneCoins technology at the back end of it, I thought what? And I literally my legs just went and I fell on the floor. Da da da da da da da da da da By this time, Jen was talking almost every day with Tim. Tim put Jen in touch with Bjorn, that's the blockchain expert you just heard, in case she had any more questions about the technology.

Uh Brion was driving at the time and I shared this message. Did he just say that it's a blockchain technology on an SQL database? He just said that. I listened to it three times. Blockchain technology on a SQL database? What the fuck is that? I just can't believe what I just heard. He said blockchain technology on an SQL database. That proves my point. Like I mean, hello bells ringing.

You just mouthed the bell's ringing bit. That that moment when you realise that there's no blockchain and the kind of penny drop that there's nothing here. This is just a fake currency.

Almost exactly two years ago. You can I still see your face when I just mentioned that moment, your sort of shoulders fall and you I find it hard even to speak about it. I think you had. It was ten thousand in total I invested um gradually. A hundred thousand euros in digital currency. I thought that's what the value. Um yeah. And a couple of thousand pounds loaning.

and um buy more packages. So h how a couple of thousand pounds, I mean, what does that mean to her financially? Oh, that's that's that's a lot, a lot, a lot of money. She doesn't Don't have it. You ac uh so I understand it, did you go actually out there to tell other people to invest as well? What initially happened was it just your your friends? And then it spreads like wildfire with Chinese whispers. I think of all my friends and family. It's a quarter million.

And I gave it to one coin. That when he I gave it to him.

Forget all the technical details, and it doesn't matter if you don't know what an SQL database is, because this is actually very simple. Every day, people from all over the world would log in to their Personal OneCoin account and see that they had a hundred or a thousand OneCoin. And they would check the price of OneCoin on the OneCoin website and watch excitedly as it kept going up.

And all of that was secure, safe and trustworthy because it was recorded on this blockchain, so it couldn't be manipulated or deleted. But the coins were fake. The ten thousand euro That someone in an office in Bulgaria had made up and could delete just as easily. OneCoin is not a real cryptocurrency. It's just pretending to be one. It's fake. It's a scam and it could be the scam of the century.

We put these allegations to OneCoin. In response to our claim that OneCoin has no true, verifiable blockchain, they said. OneCoin has a particularly innovative system of a centralised blockchain. We can cite two expert opinions which have been drafted for years. We've asked OneCoin for evidence that the blockchain exists. To the allegation that OneCoin is not a cryptocurrency, OneCoin replied, OneCoin verifiably fulfills all criteria of the definition of a cryptocurrency.

Its value is confirmed and reflects the constant worldwide trading activities such as the Dealshaker platform, one of the major global trading platforms and elsewhere. We will return to Deal Shaker in a later episode. But we have yet to see any evidence of it being a major global trading platform. To the allegation that millions of people around the world who have invested in one coin cannot exchange or spend their OneCoin, they responded.

As we have explained continuously, it is OneCoin's aim to expand the markets and the possibilities of OneCoin's fungibility. We are working hard on this each day. Trading, one coin says, is slowed down by authorities, regulators, and this is their words. Haters. We have asked OneCoin for further proof or evidence against any of our claims, and if we get any proof we'll include it later in the series.

OneCoin does not deny that it cannot be traded openly, and it did not meaningfully respond to the question challenging the repeated promises to launch OneCoin openly. I'm going to say this because it's important for me that my dad had died. He was ninety two. I only lost him um the year before. He was a minor. Um you know, worked down the most horri horriblest conditions.

and he lived till he was ninety two. I cared for him when he was Dying and um and he left us money and That says hard earned money. And um He was just a working man, a working class man. And that money that he left to me. I honestly thought I was doing good with it. For my family. Um So um Yeah, a and I always I just feel as though I've let them down. Yeah. One coin was only possible because of Dr. Rouge.

Whenever we see complicated technology that we don't understand, we make a judgment about it based on things we do understand. Like the fact that the boss was an inspirational, successful businesswoman. Dr. Rouge's magic trick was to use the hype and terminology of legitimate cryptocurrencies so ordinary people like Jen couldn't tell the difference between the real and the fake.

We're looking for somebody. What? A woman called Doctor Rujia Ignatova. We're here at the Black Sea Resort of Sozopol in eastern Bulgaria, where Dr. Rougea still owns a mansion. Do you know her? Sozopol was the last place Dr. Rouge was seen in public. In july twenty seventeen. Do you know her?

Everyone started shouting all over each other. And they've been speaking for like two minutes, I've got no idea what anyone's saying. A Bulgarian journalist called Nikolai Stoyanov Who's been investigating Doctor Rouge ever since she appeared from nowhere in two thousand and fourteen has agreed to be our guide. Never use the business getting in deep here. Yes, it's uh nice intel. So okay they said they never see her

here with the fisherman's boats you should go to the marina and ask there for for her. It's there. It's there. It's there. According to description from around July two thousand and seventeen. Roger Ignatova drew a big party. The last publisher Publicly appearing somewhere or from here. We walk over to Dr. Rouge's gleaming white yacht, the Davina. At the stern, a Greek flag flutters in the wind, and we try to peer in through the windows, looking for any.

clues and suddenly I thought I just saw someone on it. There is. Okay what are we gonna what are we gonna ask them if there's someone on it? Can I ask who owns this boat? Who owns the boat? Yeah. Can I ask how big how big is the boat? I don't think you'll say anything to us to see. At that point, a man comes up to us and says he knows something important about that boat, but he asks us to turn off the recorder.

Let's do that whole thing of what just happened. Yeah, that was interesting. Very interesting. Um he said he didn't want to be recorded because of Mafia. So he obviously thinks that the mafia's somehow involved with her, which is admittedly a bit of a worry. Uh he said the boat's owned by some offshore company. They want to base it in St. Vincent. It's currently registered in Panama. The owner could be some grandmother in a village somewhere and he wouldn't say.

It was bought in Jabai. And you know when we mentioned the name as well, her name. Yeah. I couldn't work out whether he looked nervous or trying to look intimidating. Do you know what he was sort of flitting between the two? Um you know when you get like a feeling that suddenly you sort of You sort of feel like the mood changes a bit and you're a bit suddenly feel a little bit uncomfortable about being somewhere. I reckon we should be leaving.

At that moment the man on the boat phones someone and starts smiling at us in in honestly the most sinister way. Who's he on the phone to though? Who's he on the phone? I wonder who he's who he'd be talking to. Keep your face looking away. I'm not looking back over there. Come on guys, let's go.

When we started recording this series in spring this year, we thought we were looking for a missing billionaire. But now we seem to be entering a world that's far murkier than we thought. Bjorn Björki is the blockchain specialist who turned down a job at OneCoin. You decided to sort of blow the whistle on it and I just wonder. What what sort of comeback you've you've had when you've been speaking out about this?

If I knew what I had to go through, I would have never blown the whistle. I would have just turned my back and walked away. Well what sort of thing were you worried might happen? Getting shot. Serious? Yes. Who um who I mean who would who would do that? When you talk about the amount of money that's been put into one coin, of course there's people out there that are um pissed off and would do anything to shut someone like me up. Well then you have to start digging into who Rouja is working for.

Who do you think she's working for? It starts to get Very, very, very scary. Very very very fast. It it starts to get really, really uh bad. Next time, our search takes us to Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, and we get given some startling documents. Is this what he gave you? All of this, all these files? Jesus, two million euros. invested from the UK in one week. I've added these up, so from the first of Jan to the fifth of June, minus three weeks. It's coming out as twenty nine million.

Twenty nine million Euros. We're looking at a scam worth over Four billion euros. This thinks is bigger than we thought, isn't it? If you've been affected by any of the issues raised in this program, help is available at bbc.co.uk forward slash actionline. And if you have any information that you think might help us in this investigation, please do email cryptoqueen at bbc.co.uk and Georgia and I will be checking that email daily.

The Missing Crypto Queen was presented by me, Jamie Bartlett. It was written and researched by me, Jamie Bartlett, and Georgia Catt. Georgia Catt was the producer. The story consultant is Chris Beroube and Philip Sellers is the editor. Music and sound design from the amazing Phil Channel, and we're really excited to say that we have vocals especially composed and performed by Decislava Stefanova and the London Bulgarian Choir, just for the missing crypto choir.

It is a radio documentaries production for BBC. Keeping Hi guys, it's Gemma Collins here, recording my very You're just gonna realize Cringing. The name of my podcast is what is it? The GemmaCon. Download and subscribe on the BBC. Sounds up. When you're a pro, you gotta do a little bit of everything. A little. A little. And even a little. And it helps to have something that works as hard as you do. That's why Valspar has durable, high-coverage paint for every job, every time.

More. Valspar. Pros, head to Lowe's today and talk to a pro rep about saving time and money on your next job. Valspar signature paint. Exclusion supply. See valsparpro.com for details. It's time for a great deal on a new Honda. It's time to take an adventure with rugged capability and commanding style. It's time for powerful performance, plus, plenty of room inside. Start your journey in a brand new. new vehicle. Check out the Honda Ridgeline. Pilot, or C R B. See Dealer for financing details.