ED attaches assets worth Rs 42.88 crore in GainBitcoin Ponzi Scheme masterminded by Amit Bhardwaj and associates
New Delhi – The Directorate of Enforcement attached immovable properties and bank balances worth Rs. 42.88 Crores derived by Mr. Amit Bhardwaj and his accomplices in Bitcoin Trading Ponzi scheme under the banner of M/s Variabletech Pvt. Ltd. Singapore.
According to investigation Mr. Amit Bhardwaj had started a company at Singapore by name M/s Variabletech Pvt. Ltd. in the year 2015 and through its web-site www.gainbitcoin.com, he launched a ponzi scheme of Bitcoin trading. Bitcoin is a virtual crypto-currency which is very popular amongst the investors. Under the said scheme, Mr. Amit Bhardwaj through his team of marketing agents used to lure the credulous people by asking them to buy bitcoins out of their investments and then invest these Bitcoins in his gainbitcoin scheme by promising very high returns in terms of Bitcoins itself by use of bitcoin mining kits. In this scheme, Mr. Amit Bhardwaj and his marketing agents were able to collect investments worth about 80000 Bitcoins. However, instead of paying back the promised returns to the investors in Bitcoins, Mr. Amit Bhardwaj offered them returns in his own newly launched crypto-currency token MCAP which had nearly no value on crypto-currency exchanges. There are large numbers of investors who got cheated in this way. Directorate of Enforcement initiated investigation under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 resulting in the provisional attachments of immovable properties and bank balances worth Rs. 42.88 Crores. These properties include 6 offices of Mr. Amit Bhardwaj located at Dubai (UAE) and the flats and bank balances of his two marketing agents Mr. Hemant Bhope and Mr. Pankaj Adlakha.
Amit Bhardwaj and his associates were arrested by Pune City police for cheating several people here.
