A OneCoin whistleblower who took part in a BBC podcast exposing the scam has told the BBC that she is receiving death threats following her part in the exposé. Jen McAdam, who invested £8,000 ($10,145) in OneCoin and convinced family and friends to put in a total of £220,000 ($280,000), has taken part in the multi-part podcast investigating the disappearance of OneCoin founder Dr Ruja Ignatova, who hasn’t been seen since being hit with wire fraud charges by a US court in 2017, but OneCoin loyalists clearly haven’t taken her activities too kindly.
OneCoin Supporters Close Ranks
OneCoin representatives are typically quick to put down any efforts to badmouth the company and the project or expose its flaws, with the BBC podcast and the journalist responsible for the story, Jamie Bartlett, being on the receiving end too – before the podcast had even launched, someone spliced together pieces of different interviews Bartlett had given on blockchain in the past to make it seem like he didn’t know what he was talking about and publishing it in an attempt to discredit him. They also publicly warned OneCoiners against listening to the podcast, saying it was full of lies and inaccuracies, without stipulating what these were. And now McAdam seems to be the next public figure to attract their ire, as she told the BBC:
It is horrible, the abuse is vile and the threats feel very real to me, I’m always looking over my shoulder now. It is taking its toll on my health but I will not give up until me and the thousands of other OneCoin victims like me see some form of justice.
OneCoin’s Mafia Link
McAdam may be wise to be looking over her shoulder – the podcast has so far exposed a link between Dr Ignatova, her brother and current CEO Konstantin Ignatov (who is in a New York jail awaiting trial), and organized crime, which is no surprise given that the project had around $4 billion in the bank following its multi-level marketing style token sale. Dr Ignatova disappeared on the day of a planned appearance at a OneCoin event in 2017, with the podcast suspecting she has undergone extensive plastic surgery to alter her appearance and avoid detection. Despite raising $4 billion in token sales, OneCoin is not listed on any exchange and tokens cannot be sold for cash.
