It is not a crime to own luxury real estate, whether they and in Dubai. Owners of such are the legendary tennis player Roger Federer, the frontman of "Rammstein” Til Lindemann and many other popular personalities. More interesting is the question of who the other owners are and how they made their money.
Criminals from all over the world have invested millions of dollars of unknown origin in properties in the pearl of the Persian Gulf, writes ZDF. One of the most famous such cases is that of the crypto-queen Ruzha Ignatova, who is also among those who chose to invest in real estate in Dubai, probably in an attempt to avoid prosecution.
Real estate information in the emirate is published under the name "Unlocked Dubai" from the American think tank "Center for Modern Defense Studies". The leaked data provides insight into the property ownership structure in the emirate.
Ruza Ignatova and her properties in Dubai
Ignatova is on the FBI's ten most wanted list and has been missing for years. To this day, there is speculation as to whether she is even alive. A whole series of her closest accomplices appear in the "Dubai Unlocked" data, ZDF notes. It can be assumed that the OneCoin clique properties in Dubai were paid for with money from their scheme.
Ignatova's property in Dubai is not what it is, writes the German edition "Spiegel” in its material about the crypto queen - located on the top floor of one of the most expensive complexes in the metropolis, the apartment extends to 500 square meters, and Ignatova acquired it for 2.4 million euros in 2015. An impressive amount, but quite negligible against the background of the money she made in those years.
Newly disclosed documents show in detail how the crypto queen and her associates invested the funds of at least 3.5 million investors from 175 different countries. They have been used including for the purchase of properties in the best locations in the emirate. During the years in which the OneCoin scheme was particularly active, practically all of its management often traveled to Dubai, writes "Spiegel". The emirate is an attractive location because taxes are low and extradition is rarely possible.
At first, even the local banks in the emirate became suspicious and launched a suspected money laundering investigation against the crypto queen and her cronies, as her €2.4 million home was acquired through a company founded shortly before the deal. In 2015, 50 million euros were even frozen. This is the first chance the OneCoin scam has been exposed, but Ignatova is now close to the right people in the emirate, including a sheikh from one of the most powerful families. Thus, suspicions of money laundering quickly subsided and OneCoin began its serious activity from Dubai, explains "Spiegel”.
OneCoin millions continue to flow in Dubai, even after Ruža disappears
The OneCoin scam is growing, and people close to Ruza Ignatova and the co-founder of her company, Sebastian Greenwood, are buying more real estate in the emirate - an apartment for a million euros and another for 500 thousand euros.
Finnish Kari W., one of the most active people in OneCoin, acquired at least one villa and seven apartments in the emirate. The leaked data linked more than two dozen Dubai properties to OneCoin's management team, for which they spent tens of millions.
At the end of 2015, Frank Schneider, a former officer of the services in Luxembourg, met Ruža for the first time in Vienna and began working for her, he himself wrote in a letter to the judicial authorities in his homeland. His duties were different - he advised Ignatova on security issues, looked for new executives for her companies, and was also responsible for laundering and concealing clients' incoming funds, explains "Spiegel”. He founded two companies in the United Arab Emirates specifically for this purpose. Schneider is said to have remained true to his old profession as well, suspected of spying on OneCoin critics on behalf of Ruža and installing listening devices in her one-time lover's apartment in the US - to find out if he would indeed leave your wife because of her. Above all, however, Schneider allegedly warned her boss about the police investigations that began against her in 2016 and 2017. Schneider himself claims that Ignatova received information about the relevant Europol meetings from her sources in Bulgaria.
Even after Ignatova disappeared, and her brothers Konstantin and Sebastian Greenwood were arrested, Schneider continued to work, writes the German publication, describing himself on his Internet profile as a "Businessman from Dubai who travels tirelessly". It wasn't until a year later that Frank Schneider was arrested while on a visit to France.
"I even have her number"
In response to inquiries about OneCoin and real estate, the emirates say they take their role in protecting the global financial system "very seriously" and work with international partners to pursue criminals and combat all forms of illegal financial transactions, writes "Spiegel”.
Many court decisions have been issued against Ignatova's partners. In January, the District Court of Münster sentenced three suspects from Germany to prison terms. Her brother Constantine, who pleaded guilty to money laundering and fraud in the US and gave extensive testimony about the fake OneCoin world and their staff, was released from a US prison in March this year after almost three behind bars. He returned to Sofia, where he lives in a spacious, three-story villa. According to the land registry, the property was transferred to him by his mother Vesca, who also worked for OneCoin. He does not want to answer questions and slams the door in front of a reporter from "Spiegel", the German edition also writes.
The colorful Finn Kari W., himself once a large owner of properties in Dubai, is more talkative, adds "Spiegel"'. He says he is now in Malaysia and "no longer has anything to do with Dubai". He describes the rumors and leaked documents that his former boss was killed on a boat in 2018 on the orders of a Bulgarian underworld figure and her body dumped in the Ionian Sea as "nonsense". She was alive and protected by powerful people, he even had her number. Can he reveal it to reporters? Certainly not, because he's "not a rotten rat,", replies Carrie W.
Mina Kirkova editor