Dark Web, MLMs, and a Missing Cryptoqueen

Dr Ruja Ignatova has been on the run since 2017 after orchestrating one of the biggest scams in history. This week on Whale Hunting, Bradley chats to Jamie Bartlett, the author and broadcaster who brought Ruja's shocking story into the mainstream with the hit podcast The Missing Cryptoqueen. Her OneCoin scam was somewhere between a crypto rug pull and a multi-level marketing scheme that pulled in ordinary retail investors to the tune of $4 billion. In this episode, Bradley chats to Jamie about his unorthodox journey into podcasting, from tracking fringe movements on Facebook to digging into the dark net, and his theory that radical online groups are often the first to embrace new technology. They also look back at how Jamie initially came across Ruja's scam, and how the story of the missing cryptoqueen continues to evolve five years on from the podcast's launch.

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