“Have you ever heard of digital currency, Jen, Bitcoin?” asked my best friend Eileen.
I was facing a bleak situation then: I was unwell. I was having relapses and had to take to my bed and draw the blinds to create a blackout, as the light burned my eyes. Sometimes I wore sunglasses in bed. I wasn’t fit to work for another employer because of the way the ME just took the feet from underneath me, but I didn’t even have the energy to be my own boss. I couldn’t commit to clients. I’d lost everything I had because of ME and I just wanted the chance to invest my dad’s money for my son and keep it safe for him and his wee family. Eileen knew where I was at and she told me, “I think you should take a look at this—you should at least speak to Rex.”
I remembered some of my IT clients had mentioned Bitcoin before and I said to myself, “Digital currency, I’ve heard of Bitcoin, I think I will speak to him.” I asked Eileen to give him my phone number. He called me the same day. His name was Rex Charles. He described himself as a “wealth strategist.” He was enthusiastic but not pushy. He explained about digital currency and how this investment opportunity was growing in value faster than Bitcoin.
“For you to really understand it, I definitely recommend that you go to a webinar.”
And there was one that night!
He asked, “Would you like to jump on? I’ll send you the invite link.”
I said, “Aye, do that, that’d be great.”
I joined the webinar that evening, and this pleasant lady named Sally Losa was hosting it. It lasted for about an hour and a half. There must have been about another hundred people or more on that webinar. It was ninety minutes of OneCoin marketing, which explained the Bitcoin story, how it had soared in value, and Sally explained what digital currency actually is.
The OneCoin team went back in history to the Stone Age days of bartering goods for goods and how money has changed throughout time. The message was that digital currency would bring a financial utopia, a digital future that would make flat currency obsolete. OneCoin was going to be the global leader, and the only one that mattered, the number one cryptocurrency. Then they played their ace.
They introduced Dr. Ruja Ignatova.
She appeared on a video presentation, which had a buzz about it, with repeated promotional talk of financial freedom. The film shown to prospective investors worldwide was so professional and the insistent message so convincing I felt some people would be kneeling in front of their laptops worshipping this lady and the message she was delivering. She came across as a deity.
For the moment they simply called her a money-world superstar. She had a PhD and used to work for the big-time financial company McKinsey & Company, which advises many Fortune 1,000 companies, institutions, and governments. They showed her on the cover of Forbes magazine and on glorious display on two pages inside. She was shown in Financial IT magazine making a speech at a European economic summit and explaining what she had achieved in founding OneCoin.
I was sitting in my rented council house and already hero-worshipping this Dr. Ruja and listening as Sally Losa told us the value of OneCoin. Then, more excitement as they explained that as soon as you bought a Tycoon pack- age for £5,000, the package would have a digital value of £48,000 based on OneCoin being valued at £5.25 at that mo- ment. At the same time, I was recruited into the OneCoin WhatsApp groups, where all the chat began about how you could really only change your family’s life with the Tycoon package and above. The sales team insisted that as soon as you even looked in the direction of one of the packages, you were a millionaire. It was a powerful pitch.
“My God, I’m absolutely blown away.”
I felt I was finally doing something positive with my dad’s money.
Devil's Coin: My Battle to Take Down the Notorious OneCoin Cryptoqueen by Jennifer
McAdam with Douglas Thompson (Ad Lib Publishers) Out Now
Jen McAdam was a victim of the OneCoin global cryptocurrency fraud, which stole an estimated $27 billion from ordinary people around the world. The evil genius of the scam was its target, society's 'unbanked,' not wealthy investors, and it robbed millions of their livelihood and futures. The poor became poorer. The brutal plundering led by self-styled Cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova defied all legal and banking barriers bamboozling financial authorities - until Jen McAdam fought back. With a GBP15,000 inheritance from her father, saved from a careful life in a west of Scotland mining town, Jen wanted to invest wisely for her family's future and was enraptured by the possibilities offered by OneCoin's promotional material and convincing endorsements from celebrities and financial institutions. They, like all Dr Ruja's flamboyant promises, were bogus. Jen McAdam was the first victim brave enough to fight back and despite death threats and an intimidating campaign to shut her down, and through a debilitating illness, strived tirelessly for justice - for herself, her family and friends, and the millions around the world who lost everything. She created and continues to lead victims 'support groups and in 2023, as the OneCoin bandits were being punished by international courts, spearheaded a move to get financial compensation for the many whose life hopes were cruelly crushed by the Cryptoqueen.
You can follow Jennifer McAdam on X @JenMcAdamUK
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