Inside Ruja Ignatova’s crazy rich life: The Missing Cryptoqueen scammed billions through OneCoin, and splashed out on art, property, Prada and a luxury superyacht
- She’d buy art from Halcyon Gallery, from Andy Warhol prints of Lenin and Elizabeth Taylor to Queen Elizabeth Bubblegum by Michael Moebius in her Kensington flat
- She also spent lavishly on labels like Jimmy Choo and Calvin Klein, as well as on property in Dubai and in the resort town of Sozopol in her native Bulgaria
With billions in the bank, you would expect Ignatova to splurge on some big-ticket items, and she did. From celebrating her birthday at the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum) with a performance by Tom Jones to owning several properties in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia and the Black Sea resort of Sozopol, she lives a queen-sized life. Let’s look at some of the spectacular things that money bought this charlatan …
A sprawling London penthouse
The crypto queen lived up to that sobriquet with her swanky London pad – an exclusive Abbots House block of flats in Kensington. The BBC quoted an interview on The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast with a porter at the block who recalled getting a peek inside her lavish four-bedroom penthouse flat, revealing a swimming pool and an immediately recognisable Andy Warhol painting of Elizabeth Taylor stuffed in a cupboard. Another Warhol, Red Lenin, hung over the fireplace.
The porter supposed that Ignatova probably bought these pieces of art to put her money into something that could be easily moved and less easily seized.
As per the BBC article, the London penthouse contained works of art worth nearly US$600,000 from London’s Halcyon gallery. Besides the two Warhol prints, there was a print of Queen Bubblegum by Michael Moebius.
Out of breath bodyguards carrying dozens of bags of shopping
