Cryptoqueen: How This Woman Scammed The World, Then Vanished • Discoverology

Cryptoqueen: How This Woman Scammed The World, Then Vanished

bbc.com
28m read

Ruja Ignatova called herself the Cryptoqueen. She told people she had invented a cryptocurrency to rival Bitcoin, and persuaded them to invest billions. Then, two years ago, she disappeared. Jamie Bartlett spent months investigating how she did it and trying to figure out where she’s hiding.

Related topics
Related posts
Can $500 A Month Change Your Life?

Can $500 A Month Change Your Life?

Economics Politics

A California-based experiment in universal basic income considers the mundane, and potentially transformative, power of a little extra cash. It’s not a new idea, dating as far back as Tudor England. Thinkers ranging from Martin Luther King Jr. to Milton Friedman have backed it.

The Night The Music Died

The Night The Music Died

Long Reads

It came out of the sky about five miles north of Clear Lake, Iowa, and slammed into the frozen earth. Outside lay the bodies of three young men who had been thrown from the plane at more than 100 miles per hour. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and Jiles P. Richardson, also known as the Big Bopper, were dead.

What Brought Beyoncé, U2, And BTS To Amish Country?

What Brought Beyoncé, U2, And BTS To Amish Country?

Long Reads

Rock Lititz is a one-of-a-kind production community in Amish Country. They aim to be a one-stop shop for major bands: They build the stage, they design the lighting, they do the sound, and after a couple days or a week or a month of rehearsals, they send you off to tour the world.

Beyond The Growth Gospel

Beyond The Growth Gospel

Business Economics Long Reads

The Hotel Belvédère du Rayon Vert symbolizes the very empire these adherents of “degrowth,” as the movement is known, wish to overthrow: consumption, wealth, inequality, travel, and cement, the whole modern industrial condition.

Why Aren’t Millennials Buying Homes?

Why Aren’t Millennials Buying Homes?

Economics Videos

In the UK, only one in four middle-income millennials are on the housing ladder. Twenty years ago,  65% of this group owned homes. What’s changed? Is it possible to buy a house without help? And with more people privately renting, what are the implications for starting families, retirement and society at large?

The British Once Built A 1,100-Mile Hedge Through The Middle Of India

The British Once Built A 1,100-Mile Hedge Through The Middle Of India

Economics History Nature

There was nothing charming about what the British built. It wasn’t meant to protect anything except imperial revenue. It grew along the Inland Customs Line, a bureaucratic barrier that the British created to impose a high salt tax on the people living on one side of the line—the relatively saltless one.

How The English Language Is Taking Over the Planet

How The English Language Is Taking Over the Planet

Long Reads World

English is everywhere, and everywhere, English dominates. From inauspicious beginnings on the edge of a minor European archipelago, it has grown to vast size and astonishing influence. Almost 400m people speak it as their first language; a billion more know it as a secondary tongue. Is there any point in resisting?

Lifetime Free 1st Class Air Travel Pass: A Disaster

Lifetime Free 1st Class Air Travel Pass: A Disaster

Business Explainers Videos

In 1982, American Airlines had an idea to offer a lifetime free first-class air travel pass to its wealthiest customers. The person holding this pass could fly on American Airlines at any time it wanted, to any destination it wanted, for as many times it wanted, for the rest of its life after paying a one-time fixed membership fee.

How Two Lottery-Crazed Bank Clerks Cooked Up China’s Biggest Bank Robbery

How Two Lottery-Crazed Bank Clerks Cooked Up China’s Biggest Bank Robbery

Crime Long Reads

On April 16, 2007, the fuzzy, grey star had just set, and the bustling streets cast further into darkness, when police detectives arrived at the Agricultural Bank of China. When detectives entered the vault, they were stumped. The suspects had left behind only one piece of physical evidence: a bag full of lottery tickets.

The Woman Who Lives 200,000 Years in the Past

The Woman Who Lives 200,000 Years in the Past

Life Long Reads

Lynx Vilden is a 54-year-old British expat who, for most of her adult life, has lived wholly off the grid. She doesn’t have cell service or WiFi. Until about ten years ago, Lynx also possessed no credit card, nor fixed address; her previous abodes had neither electricity nor running water.

The Dollhouses Of Death That Changed Forensic Science

The Dollhouses Of Death That Changed Forensic Science

Art Crime Videos

Frances Glessner Lee created dollhouses with dead dolls. Her miniatures significantly advanced forensics and forensic science, but they aren’t just CSI curios – they’re complex, confounding works of art that manage to be morbid and beautiful at the same time.

The Everything Town In The Middle Of Nowhere

The Everything Town In The Middle Of Nowhere

Business Economics Tech

On any given day, thousands of packages from Walmarts, Targets, and stores around the country travel north along a two-lane road out of Billings, Montana — past the Tumbleweed Saloon, past cows grazing on empty rangeland, past the Busy Bee Cafe and stands of short pines — to the town of Roundup, where they will be unboxed, re-boxed, and sent off to Amazon.

A Long Walk’s End

A Long Walk’s End

Crime Long Reads Nature

On May 18 2015, the FBI announced the search for a 53-year-old accountant accused of embezzling $8.7 million from an Ohio-based Pepsi distributor had come to an end. His name: James T. Hammes. Authorities say Hammes took the funds through a series of banking transfers while working as a controller for the distributor. Then he went for a hike.

Extreme Loneliness Or The Perfect Balance? How To Work From Home And Stay Healthy

Extreme Loneliness Or The Perfect Balance? How To Work From Home And Stay Healthy

Business Health Life

More and more people are working where they live and living where they work, attracted by the promise of greater flexibility. Beyond the lack of interaction with colleagues – there are no ideas by osmosis, no overhearing others talking – there is also the lack of interaction with the wider world.

Inside X, Google’s Top-Secret Moonshot Factory

Inside X, Google’s Top-Secret Moonshot Factory

Innovation Long Reads Science Tech

Within Alphabet, Google’s parent company, it is grouped alongside Deepmind in “Other Bets”, although in that metaphor, X is more like the gambler. Its stated aim is to pursue what it calls “moonshots” – to try to solve humanity’s great problems by inventing radical new technologies.

We use cookies on this website to analyse your use of our products and services, provide content from third parties and assist with our marketing efforts. Learn more about our use of cookies and available controls: cookie policy. Please be aware that your experience may be disrupted until you accept cookies.