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Николай Марченко

Николай Марченко е зам.-главен редактор на "Биволъ" от ноември 2022 г. Той е журналист, специализиран в икономически и международни теми. Работил е във в.“Сега“, бизнес портала LiveBiz.bg. Бивш кореспондент в София е на авторитетния руски в.“Коммерсантъ“.

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Investigative reporting outlet Bivol and the weekly newspaper Capital were the only Bulgarian media invited to work on the production of a new documentary about cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova. Die Kryptoqueen – The One Coin Scam was shown at the film festival in Cologne last week along with the premiere of the TV series Die Kryptoqueen. The documemtary is the work of leading investigative journalists Johan von Mirbach from the German public broadcaster WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln) and Phillip Bovermann from Suddeutsche Zeitung in Munich. On 22 October the production premiered at the Cologne Film Festival in the TOP TEN TV category. Bivol founder Assen Yordanov was invited to the official screening of the series in Cologne. The fact that only Bivol and Capital were invited is an international recognition for the two Bulgarian media, the journalist said.

Ruja Ignatova (Image: Film Festival Cologne’2022)

A series and a documentary about “the cryptoqueen”

WDR/ARD production „Cryptoqueen – the series“ will be offered exclusively on the TV channel’s website Mediathek section starting from 5 November. The series is a kind of investigation in itself, its 4 episodes featuring multiple witness accounts by people speaking publicly for the first time to outline the portrait of the mysterious Ruja – the Bulgarian/German perpetrator of the largest internet scam to date. She is currently the most hunted for woman in the world.

In addition to the series, at 23:20 on 28 October ARD aired the ninety-minute documentary The Cryptoqueen – The One Coin Scam. The economic crime investigation will also be shown on ARTE at 22:40 on 1 November.

The series and the documentary outline the unprecedented story of Ignatova’s success, her downfall and sudden disappearance. Using the pseudo-cryptocurrency OneCoin she managed to con over three million investors and make off with several billion euro. She vanished without a trace five years ago on 25 October 2017 and today tops the FBI’s most wanted list.

Her scam and the missing billions have not been fully investigated and the victims are still waiting for compensation. The series shows how Ignatova managed to get away, who helped her disappear and how the money was laundered. Traces of the scheme are being found around the globe.

Ruja’s career had a promising start. In July 2014 the new cryptocurrency was launched and for a moment it seemed only a matter of time before it would become bigger than Bitcoin. OneCoin was meant to seem easy to understand and secure to use – a cryptocurrency for everyone. Ruja Ignatova was brilliant at self-portrayal, her seminars were like religious ceremonies – she styled herself as a mix between Steve |Jobs and Robin Hood, always in a glittering dress and bright red lipstick.

During her mass events she promised her cheering supporters she would break the power of banks and replace the current financial system with a transparent and democratic one, while actually setting up one of the biggest con schemes of all time – a Ponzi-style pyramid that funnelled at least five billion euro into the pockets of shady persons pulling the strings behind the scene. When the scam was exposed in 2017 Ruja Ignatova disappeared.

„Cryptoqueen – the series“ is a co-production of a&o Filmproduktion Köln and WDR in cooperation with ARTE. It was written by Johan von Mirbach and the Suddeutsche Zeitung journalist Phillip Bovermann, directed by Johan von Mirbach and edited by Christiane Hintz and Jutta Krug at WDR. In addition to the true crime series, the documentary The Cryptoqueen – The OneCoin Scam places its focus on the anatomy of the crime and its place in the world of fraud.

Two Bulgarian media contributed to the production

The documentary series also featured input from Bulgaria, represented by Bivol and Capital, says investigative journalist Assen Yordanov, who was among the guests at the Cologne Film Festival at the end of October.

„No other Bulgarian media representative was invited,” Yordanov explains.

The journalist reveals that the documentary series may go on. “We will continue to work with our colleagues at WRD/ARD and Suddeutsche Zeitung. Being invited to collaborate with them raises our reputation even higher on the international level,” the Bivol representative commented.

The Cryptoqueen’s Authors (Image: Film Festival Cologne’2022)

He emphasised some important facts revealed by Bivol revealed in July 2021 as part of their investigation into Ruja Ignatova’s activities. „Despite having been widely exposed as a criminal organisation, Ruja’s company was still legally operating and recruiting new victims in Bulgaria,” the founder of the investigative publication explained. „And it has to be said it was going on in plain sight, under the very noses of all Bulgarian authorities, the finance ministry and the ministry of interior,” Yordanov says.

Find out more about the Bulgarian contribution to the German production in the interview with Bivol director Assen Yordanov on Assen Genov’s Countercomment videocast.

Capital journalist Nickolay Stoyanov is the author of one of the few books on Ruja Ignatova. His OneCoin: The Woman Who Scammed the World has now become a bestseller. New details about Ruja Ignatova’s scheme are coming soon on Bivol.bg as the investigation continues.

More from the authors of The Cryptoqueen

In November there are two promising documentary series premiering on ARD in cooperation with WDR – The Cryptoqueen, about the world’s most wanted woman, and Reeperbahn 65 Special Squad about the specialised police unit fighting organised crime on the notorious Reeperbahn street in Hamburg.

How do you balance true crime and media ethics? How do you tell a riveting story and yet keep your account as detailed and factual as possible in the face of all the fierce competition in the documentary genre? Are those features the key to the future and what are their advantages? What is the significance of high-end documentary series to ARD-Mediathek’s strategy for reaching a younger target audience?

Find out what the team members have to say  (какво споделят)  – Christian Beetz (producer and author of Reeperbahn 65 Special Squad, Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion, Берлин), Johan von Mirbach (author and director of The Cryptoqueen, Cologne), Phillip Bovermann (co-author of The Cryptoqueen and editor at Suddeutsche Zeitung, Мunich), Christiane Hinz (one of the editors and project lead for the two series, head of the documentary programme group at WDR, Cologne), Jonas Schlotterbeck (head of the Content department at ARD Online and head of Programme Planning at ARD).

The Cryptoqueen’s Poster (Image: Film Festival Cologne’2022)

DIE KRYPTOQUEEN – DIE SERIE | Film Festival Cologne

„The Cryptoqueen“ tells the story of the biggest scam in the history of the internet carried out by the mysterious Ruja Ignatova. The true crime series captures her unrivalled success, her downfall and the known facts surrounding her disappearance. The Bulgarian/German woman managed to scam over three billion investors and steal several billion euro using her pseudo-cryptocurrency OneCoin. Five years ago she vanished. Today Ignatova tops the lists of most wanted criminals around the world.

director: Johan von Mirbach

script: Johan von Mirbach, Phillip Bovermann, Nico Schlegel

producer: Robert Tasso Pütz

head editors: Christiane Hinz, Jutta Krug (WDR)

cinematography: Till Vielrose, Beate Scheerer,Martin Gasch

editor: Nico Schlegel

редактор: Нико Шлегел

sound: Peter Schröder

international sales: Java Films

*photo credits: International Film Festival – Cologne 

**translation from German: Mila Vangelova (Berlin) 

***header photo: Assen Yordanov with film authors Johan von Mirbach and Phillip Bovermann 

***

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