Banker who vanished with £10billion of cryptocurrency OneCoin owned Duffy’s former £13.5million penthouse
A MISSING banker dubbed ‘The Cryptoqueen’ who vanished with an estimated £10bn of cryptocurrency owned a £13.5m London penthouse which used to belong to pop star Duffy, it emerged last night.
The glamorous Oxford-educated entrepreneur Dr Ruja Ignatova built a cyber empire by convincing more than a million people worldwide to invest in what she dubbed "The Bitcoin Killer".
Dr Ignatova pulled off one of the world’s biggest ever scams, based on her new cryptocurrency called ‘OneCoin’, before disappearing in 2017.
It emerged during a money-laundering trial in Germany that she used British lawyers and wealth managers to hide the luxury apartment in Kensington.
The four-bed apartment reportedly also contained around £500,000 worth of artwork, including Andy Warhol paintings.
Her pad, which also had a swimming pool, had been refurbished by a luxury property developer after a fire broke out while it was the London home of superstar Duffy.
The Welsh singer was forced to flee the flat in 2012 after an inferno engulfed the property - taking 12 fire engines and 60 firefighters to quell.
A former porter in the building told the BBC that he remembered seeing Ignatova and her bodyguards at the apartment in 2016.
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He said: "These two poor men came behind her like overloaded donkeys, struggling, and a bit out of breath - they must've had 20 bags each.”
The porter added: "She had an Andy Warhol painting stuffed in the cupboard, and that broke my heart because I went to art college."
Dr Ignatova’s whereabouts are still unknown and the City of London police closed its investigation into OneCoin without making any charges in 2019.
Martin Breidenbach, Dr Ruja's German lawyer, denies money-laundering. His trial continues.
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