Cheated out of £250k, threatened and abused.. but I won’t stop fighting mafia thugs and one of biggest cons the world’s ever seen
Furious investor vows to fight back after she and her family lose fortune to cryptocurrency scam
Jen McAdam discovered OneCoin when she was looking for a solid investment after her father died.
She thought she was buying a futuristic cryptocurrency that would secure her family’s financial future.
In fact, the 49-year- old was joining a cynical pyramid- selling scheme that would con her out of her father’s inheritance and dazzle her family and friends with the promise of easy cash.
OneCoin is an international scam with links to the Bulgarian mafia.
In the UK, investors have been conned out of £100million.
The worldwide loss is currently documented at £ 3.9billion but could be as high as £12.75billion.
Most people, in the face of a giant and well- connected criminal organisation, would take the financial hit and shut up.
Jen decided differently and is taking on what she describes as “the biggest pyramid- selling scam the world has ever seen”.
She set up the first support group for victims of OneCoin and carried on in the face of legal pressure and personal threats.
Today, she is at the centre of a support network that spans the world.
Jen lost the £10,000 her father left her. Her pal who first suggested OneCoin, boborrowed £ 2000 from a high- interest lelender to invest. Together Jen’s family and frfriends lost £250,000. Their story has been rerepeated all over the world.
A BBC podcast, The Mi ssing CCryptoqueen, told the story of OneCoin anand its charismatic Bulgarian founder DDr Ruja Ignatova.
She is on the run, charged in her absence wwith wire fraud and money-laundering, bubut OneCoin’s backers are still at work seselling the phony cryptocurrency.
New York County District AAttorney Cyrus Vance described it as “an old- school pyramid scscheme on a new- school plplatform”. Initially, Jen was convinced. She was invited to a “webinar”, an online session where OneCoin representatives raved about the great profits to be made in cryptocurrency. She boug ht an £ 8 5 0 package right away.
Within a week, she bought the £ 4250 “Tycoon” package.
She said: “That immediat ely t u r ned i nto a digital currency value of £ 40,000. I t hou g ht I could cash it in. I thought it had an exchange although I d id n’ t know how tha t worked. I was told that after 12 weeks, I could get my investment back.” The scam was dressed up in a complex smokescreen of “tokens”, “mining difficulty” and “splits”, based on established cryptoc ur renciesypsuc has Bit coin.
But OneCoinOn did not have the techno technological infrastructure, called a blockchain, to create a viabviable currency. Jen said: “It was all false. All lies. All window dredressing, although it looks ververy technical.”
O One Coin uses the mamanipulative techniques of pyramidpyra selling to shut down investors invesw ho ask difficult questions. questio All contact is through WhatsAppWhWhats groups and webinars. AsA soons as Jen questioned why sheh couldn’t get her money back afterft 12 weeks, and why the business bank accounts OneCoin used were closing, she was branded “difficult”. She said: “People who ask too many questions are removed from the groups. This is what people are frightened of – they are removed from their connection to their investment. OneCoin don’t have a phone number, they don’t respond to emails. You don’t realise this until it’s too late.”
Jen was rescued by Timothy Curry, a cryptocurrency expert who campaigns against scammers and fraudsters.
He spent a weekend trying to persuade her that she had been scammed. She used OneCoin’s well-rehearsed arguments, then blocked him on social media.
But Jen’s doubts continued.
She asked increasingly technical questions in WhatsApp groups. OneCoin’s strategy was to answer awkward queries privately rather than in a group forum.
Jen finally realised she had been conned when she asked what technology OneCoin used in its blockchain.
Her group leader called back with an answer. She said: “He was quite direct. I still have the voicemail message. It’s an SQL server database. That was the lightbulb moment. My legs went to jelly. I was on my bedroom floor before I knew
it. An SQL server database can’t create a blockchain. That was it, all my questions about bank accounts shutting down, and why can’t I get my initial investment back, were answered. Flashing before me was a £250,000 loss. Bang. Mine, family, friends, friends of theirs.”
Pyramid scams rely on victims being so embarrassed and ashamed that they keep quiet about their losses.
But Jen contacted City of London Police, where the fraud unit confirmed OneCoin was under investigation. “They told me they believed it was a Ponzi fraud scam and advised me not to invest any further.”
Jen then jumped into all her OneCoin groups and announced that she was holding a webinar entitled “OneCoin is under investigation in the UK, OneCoin is connected to a criminal network”.
She started a Facebook support group to spread the word among her own contacts. It began with 13 members. Three years later it has more than 7000. Jen is at the centre of a worldwide network, as victims from all across the world come forward with heartbreaking stories of financial ruin.
She said: “We have WhatsApp groups covering every continent. There are people who sold houses their houses, sold their land, entered a lifetime of debt. Farmers in Uganda sold their goats. OneCoin waited until they sold their crops, then went in.”
A man from Kerala, in the south of India, came online one night. He and a group of other victims were planning a suicide pact.
Jen, from Glasgow, recalled: “I phoned him and phoned him, lef t begging messages but I still haven’t heard.”
In the north of England, OneCoin targeted the Muslim community, claiming all its financial products complied with Sharia law. If elderly people didn’t have access to the internet, they offered to set up their accounts, took their money and then refused to give them the passwords.
Jen could have made money out of OneCoin, but didn’t. She told people about the cryptocurrency in good faith, not to earn commission when they bought into the scheme.
She said: “There was a very complicated compensation plan. I had no clue about it. If I had, and many did, I would have structured it properly. That’s how a lot of people made a lot of money – not by trading and investing but by recruiting other investors.”
Jen brought in £250,000 through a wide circle of friends and family.
Two fifths of her commission was paid in OneCoin, the rest in cash.
She made £1800 in the nine months she was with OneCoin – and used it to buy more OneCoin packages. She knows she will never see the money again.
The week she started ted the support group, she e received a lawyer’s letter accusing her of defamation. There have also been death and rape threats.
She said: “The abusive threats have been constant since I began victim support groups. I’ve been looking over my shoulder for three years. I have protection in my home. This is what you read in novels and crime thrillers. It turns you into a paranoid wreck.”
The net is closing in on Ignatova, who has been on the run since 2017.
In November, Mark Scott, a New York lawyer, was convicted of conspiracy to launder money and commit bank fraud.
He laundered £ 300mil lion for the scammers and was paid £ 38million for his trouble.
Ignatova’s brother, Konstantin Ignatov, ran OneCoin after his sister fled. He was arrested in the US in March. He testified against Mark Scott and has made a deal with the authorities. He will be tried this month. Ignatova’s lover, Gilbert Armenta, has also turned FBI informant.
Jen needs Dr Ruja herself to face justice. She said: “Victims need her found alive. We need justice. Only then can you begin to heal.”
I’ve been looking over my shoulder for three years