Ep05- MLM – Companion Guide For BBC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen” Podcast

It was about time that MLM made an appearance. Multi-Level Marketing explains a lot about the OneCoin story. In this ONE-HOUR episode of “The Missing Cryptoqueen,” we’ll learn about the secret ingredient that catapulted Dr. Ruja from the millions to the billions. We’ll meet interesting people and the plot will thicken. Also, the size of the OneCoin scam will increase significantly. This thing gets bigger by the episode, which is what makes the show so entertaining. What a clusterfuck this was.

It begins by answering the question posed in episode 4. Could an unrecognizable version of Dr. Ruja have been in attendance at the Miss OneLife beauty pageant? The production team shows a UK plastic surgeon pictures from the event. There was a person with OneCoin’s main directors that they suspect might’ve been Ruja Ignatova. He hesitates, but when Jamie Bartlett tells him that the person they’re looking for is a billionaire with an infinite budget, he changes his mind. “It’s possible, those things can be changed,” he says.

That being settled, let’s get into MLM.

Remember, you can download episodes directly from the BBC, or listen to “The Missing Cryptoqueen” through Apple, Spotify, or iVoox.

About MLM And “The Missing Cryptoqueen,” Episode Five – “What Dreams May Come”

This episode’s protagonist was the #1 seller of OneCoin at one point. He’s a professional multi-level marketer with an army of professional MLM salespersons at his disposal. His house is called “What Dreams May Come,” which inspired the episode’s title. This man’s tongue is the main reason this episode is one hour long. His stories are phenomenal, everyone should listen to them. Especially considering we’re going to skip them and stick to the core story.

So, network marketing, MLM, or multi-level marketing is the missing ingredient. When this man’s company started working for OneCoin, they put an army of top-level marketers to push the product. And it sold like hotcakes. “In the first year, it made more millionaires than Amway ever did in their 75 years of history,” he claims. The kicker to this part of the story is that the MLM marketer alleges that he believed Dr. Ruja and put more money into OneCoin than anyone on earth.

According to the released FBI documents we found last time, Dr. Ruja and company called this operation “The B*tch of Wall Street meets MLM.” You can’t make this stuff up. In an archival audio file, we hear her announce that OneCoin was going to inflate the supply 10X and the crowd cheered. Then, contradicting every economic law, she told them that the more OneCoin there were, the best it was for them. They Cheered. Then, by decree, she doubled the amount of OneCoin everyone had in their vaults. People lost their minds.

Besides MLM, two of the most mind-blowing revelations the episode contains are in the following quotes.

Quotes From “The Missing Cryptoqueen,” Episode Five – “What Dreams May Come”

Tim Curry, OneCoin critic, said:

“The math of this is just completely ridiculous. Every minute 50,000 OneCoins are mined, right? Now, the value of those at today’s “price” of €29.95 would be €1.5 million a minute, is what they’re claiming right? And per hour, that’s €89.85 million. And then, per day, they’re creating €2.15 billion out of thin air, right? And so, the logic of it is just ridiculous. Now, if you follow how many coins have been mined for the first quote “Blockchain.” And then, from October 1 to present, it’s nearing about 70 billion coins. If we take 70 billion coins and multiply that by the internal price of 29.95, you’re looking at, I think it’s like $1.8 trillion or $2.1 trillion. Which is greater than all of the US dollars in circulation on earth, which is about $1.67 trillion.”

About the fact that OneCoin did have a certificate saying they were Shariah-compliant that was issued from Pakistan, Amjad Mohammed, scholar from Bradford and OneCoin critic, said:

“What Sharia compliant is supposed to mean, is that somebody has carried out thorough research, gone through all the conditions, gone through all the terms with a fine tooth comb. There was no evidence of any research whatsoever. It was just a blank certificate saying “this is okay.” Amjad issued a fatwa against this, a ruling that OneCoin was not halal. And then, “within weeks, the conditions which I had highlighted as being problematic changed. So, clearly, somebody was keeping a watching brief of what I was doing because I only picked a couple in the initial fatwa. However, OneCoin does not actually exist. So, I can easily make any form of conditions for something, when the actual thing does not exist. It’s a fraud.”

MLM And The Perfect Scam

Near the end, Jamie Bartlett reflects on the story so far:

“There’s something strangely beautiful about the OneCoin scam. It’s like the perfect scam. It combines the hype and terminology of cryptocurrencies and the hard-nosed MLM selling of people like Igor Alberts. It uses glamorous events and household brands to create the veneer of respectability and protects it with a religious-like zeal. And who could ever doubt the intentions of the trustworthy Dr. Ruja.”

The cult-like aspects of the whole ordeal are ever-present in this episode. The whistleblowers tell the producers about the death threats they get like it’s nothing. For people inside of OneCoin, they’re traitors of the highest order. For these religious zealots, Dr. Ruja is still running the whole operation from the shadows, and the people that want to silence her are just jealous “haters.”

Before finishing, Jamie Bartlett explores the idea that, when it mixed with MLM, the OneCoin operation got too big. Maybe Dr. Ruja was scared, as she seems to show in an alleged email. Apparently, this was supposed to be a little scam, but it caught fire. And Dr. Ruja’s backers were not going to let a golden goose die.

Episode Credits

Presenter: Jamie Bartlett Producer: Georgia Catt Story consultant: Chris Berube Editor: Philip Sellars Original music and sound design: Phil Channell Original music and vocals: Dessislava Stefanova and the London Bulgarian Choir