13. The South Africa Connection

January 22, 2026·27 min·1 clip

Jen McAdam says OneCoin stole her time, attention, and family moments—not only her money.

1. The Missing Cryptoqueen examines South Africa’s connection to the search for Ruja Ignatova, while revisiting Jen McAdam’s life after OneCoin. 2. Jamie Bartlett presents the episode, Rob Byrne produces it, and Jen McAdam matters as an early OneCoin investor and advocate for victims. 3. The episode asks whether South Africa, the killing of Krasimir Kamanov, and a new US reward can clarify whether Ruja Ignatova is alive. 4. Jen McAdam invested thousands of pounds from her inheritance in OneCoin and persuaded friends and family to invest more than £200,000. 5. McAdam says she cancelled the launch of Devil’s Coin after receiving an explicit WhatsApp video and repeated calls between 2 and 3 o’clock in the morning. 6. McAdam says OneCoin’s aftermath cost her holidays, attention, headspace, and time with her family. 7. Jamie Bartlett and producer Rob Byrne examine videos that McAdam believes show a woman resembling Ruja Ignatova. 8. Bartlett says he and Byrne became 95% sure that the woman in McAdam’s videos was someone else. 9. The episode revisits police documents alleging that Ignatova was killed on a yacht in late 2018 and her body was thrown into the Mediterranean. 10. Atanas Chebanov is identified as one Bulgarian journalist who obtained the documents, which allegedly connected the suspected drug trafficker Taki to Ignatova’s murder. 11. Crime reporter Aron Heyman describes Bulgaria’s South African community, which expanded after the Eastern Bloc dissolved and South Africa became a democracy in 1994. 12. Heyman says Kuro presented himself as a businessman running car parks and a fruit and vegetable market while rumours linked his wealth to drug trafficking. 13. Kuro spoke with Heyman by phone about Bulgarian organised crime in South Africa and denied ever being arrested there. 14. Kuro also reportedly handed Ignatova-related police documents to Chebanov and may have spoken with American authorities. 15. On 25 May 2023, Kuro, his wife, their nanny, and a bodyguard were shot at a house on Evergreen Lane in Constantia. 16. No one had been arrested or charged for the Constantia killings when the episode was produced, leaving questions about Kuro’s knowledge of Ignatova’s supposed murder. 17. The episode uses interviews, archival audio, location reporting, and investigative narration from Glasgow, Cape Town, Bulgaria, and other locations. 18. Bartlett’s tone shifts between personal uncertainty, detailed crime reporting, and renewed attention after the FBI reward announcement. 19. Listeners tracking OneCoin, scams, and unresolved investigations. 20. Listeners seeking a resolved case and minimal violence.

As heard by us

A grim, carefully tracked follow-up that treats a murder theory as something to test, not celebrate.

The South Africa Connection steers the OneCoin story into darker, less certain territory, tracing how Ruja Ignatova carried out one of the biggest scams ever and whether she may have been murdered after disappearing.

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Why you'd press play

You want the next turn in the OneCoin mystery, with real stakes and no tidy answers.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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