Ep04- OneLife – Companion Guide For BBC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen” Podcast

What does a OneLife-produced occasion appear to be? Is the group that helps the OneCoin neighborhood competent sufficient to supply a magnificence pageant? The reply to these questions would possibly shock you. For this fourth episode, Jamie Bartlett and Georgia Catt go into the lion’s den. They journey to Bucharest, Romania, and witness the Miss OneLife coronation. Apparently, the occasion had a few of “the world’s most well-known manufacturers as sponsors.” However, because it occurs with every thing Dr. Ruja associated, issues will not be what they appear.

This episode’s visitor star is Christi Calina, who’s a OneLife “unbiased advertising and marketing affiliate” and one of many occasion’s producers. Since the person’s ghosting them, Jamie and Georgia ambush him at a OneLife occasion in the identical metropolis. The convention “seems like the true deal, similar to OneCoin,” Jamie evaluates. There, they get entry to the Miss OneLife occasion and issues take a flip for the mysterious.

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About “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s” Episode Four – “Miss OneLife”

In this episode, Jamie and Georgia undergo the fees in opposition to Konstantin Ignatov, Dr. Ruja’s brother. They comprise a number of the FBI paperwork in regards to the case and embody emails between Dr. Ruja and “different high leaders” of the OneLife group. In these, the folks allegedly talk about how the rip-off works intimately. If these are actual, there’s little doubt that OneCoin was a really deliberate rip-off from the very starting. They even talk about faux the mining of the supposed cryptocurrency.

In these emails, Dr. Ruja discusses a attainable exit technique and proposes they may “take the cash and run and blame another person for this.”

Later on, the FBI claims Dr. Ruja is “straight related to important gamers within the Easter European organized crime.”

It’s essential to know that OneCoin disputes all of those allegations. We included a part of their denial within the quotes part. We additionally included concrete details about Dr. Ruja’s disappearance and a brand new issue that may clarify why she fled on the time she did.

BTC worth chart for 10/25/2022 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

The Miss OneLife Beauty Pageant

Our heroes go into the attention of the storm. They can barely enter the premises as a result of everybody within the OneLife group is aware of precisely who they’re. They don’t mix in. Everyone is “well dressed.” Bottles of Moet and cigars abound. The manufacturing is slick. A stage comes down from the ceiling and Jamie loses his thoughts. In the top, they each admit that the OneLife group can throw a hell of an occasion. It was boring, although. And it doesn’t appear to be any cryptocurrency-related operate that the podcast host has ever attended.

“OneCoin continues to be going and there’s some huge cash right here,” Jamie says earlier than fleeing the occasion.

Back in London, the producers fact-check every thing that occurred. The well-known manufacturers that have been supposedly hooked up to the Miss OneLife pageant deny sponsorship. They’ve by no means heard of the occasion. Then, they contact Forbes and the journal denies that Dr. Ruja was ever on the duvet just like the group made appear of their promotional materials. Then, they test on her training claims. As it seems, Dr. Ruja did go to Oxford and received the diploma she claims to have.

To end the episode off, Jamie interviews Miss OneLife UK. She provides them peripheral data, just like the occasion’s ticketing wasn’t open to the general public and one of many prizes was a present card for beauty surgical procedure. Then, Jamie mentions Dr. Ruja. She says that she heard somebody essential was on the occasion, however couldn’t keep in mind if it was her.

Is it attainable that Dr. Ruja was in attendance on the Miss OneLife occasion? Apparently, “she’s unrecognizable now.”

This story will get extra fascinating by the minute.

Quotes From “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s” Episode Four – “Miss OneLife”

OneCoin’s assertion:

“OneCoin disputes all allegations. To our declare that OneCoin is just not a cryptocurrency and that its nominal worth is just not decided by demand and provide, however is manipulated and set internally, they mentioned: “OneCoin verifiably fulfills all standards of the definition of cryptocurrency, and likewise these of a clear pricing that’s in step with the widespread market”. The BBC podcast sequence, they are saying, “is predicated on testimonials of haters, former workers who have been both fired or disgracefully dismissed for inside firm violations, mental property theft, and different violations. Thus, the sequence won’t current any truthful data and can’t be thought-about goal, nor unbiased.”

Concrete details about Dr. Ruja’s disappearance, and a brand new issue that may clarify why she fled:

“The FBI recordsdata additionally contained worthwhile new details about Dr. Ruja’s disappearance. “Bulgarian journey data present that on or about October twenty fifth, 2017, Ruja flew on Ryanair from Sofia, Bulgaria to Athens, Greece.” Dr. Ruja was final seen in Sozopol, in round July 2017. That was on her non-public yacht, the Davina, the one we noticed. On October seventh, she then failed to show up at a OneCoin occasion in Lisbon. But now we all know that her final recognized whereabouts was in truth Athens on twenty fifth October 2017. And there’s some extra clues right here.

Last week, I mentioned that the US authorities charged Dr. Ruja in absentia in March 2019. That’s not the entire story. We’ve realized that Dr. Ruja was truly indicted on twelfth October 2017, however this indictment was sealed till March 2019. It was simply two weeks after that first indictment that Dr. Ruja vanished. Is it attainable she may have been tipped off?”

Extra Material And Episode Credits

As you in all probability know in the event you’ve gotten this far within the sequence, Dr. Ruja is on the FBI’s most-wanted checklist. The textual content below her identify says:

“Ruja Ignatova is needed for her alleged participation in a large-scale fraud scheme. Beginning in roughly 2014, Ignatova and others are alleged to have defrauded billions of {dollars} from buyers all around the world. Ignatova was the founding father of OneCoin Ltd., a Bulgaria-based firm that marketed a purported cryptocurrency. In order to execute the scheme, Ignatova allegedly made false statements and representations to people with a purpose to solicit investments in OneCoin. She allegedly instructed victims to transmit funding funds to OneCoin accounts with a purpose to buy OneCoin packages, inflicting victims to ship wire transfers representing these investments. Throughout the scheme, OneCoin is believed to have defrauded victims out of greater than $4 billion.”

And lastly, the episode’s credit:

Presenter: Jamie Bartlett
Producer: Georgia Catt
Story guide: Chris Berube
Editor: Philip Sellars
Original music and sound design: Phil Channell
Original music and vocals: Dessislava Stefanova and the London Bulgarian Choir