The co-founders of BitConnect, a major cryptocurrency scam scheme, are now on the wanted list of the Indian police
The Indian police has launched an investigation into BitConnect co-founder Satish Kumbhani months after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said he had moved to India, reported cointelegraph.
The co-founders of BitConnect, a major cryptocurrency scam scheme, are now on the wanted list of the Indian police.
Satish Kumbhani, an Indian national and the alleged founder of the crypto Ponzi scheme BitConnect, reportedly became subject to a new police investigation in India, according to an Indian Express report on August 17.
The Pune police has launched a probe into Kumbhani after a Pune-based lawyer filed a complaint claiming that he had lost about 220 Bitcoin (BTC), or $5.2 million, due to BitConnect. The complainant said his original investment was 54 BTC, with returns of 166 BTC, which he allegedly used to reinvest into platforms. The claimant noted that transactions between him and the suspects took place between 2016 and June 2021, pointing to six more people allegedly involved in the scam along with Kumbhani. No arrests have been made in the case, the report stated.
The United States SEC said the authority was unable to locate the missing BitConnect co-founder. In a court filing in late February, the SEC noted that Kumbhani’s last known location was in India
BitConnect is one of the biggest scam schemes in the history of crypto, with the Ponzi orchestrators reportedly fraudulently raising about $2.4 billion from misled investors. Launched in February 2016, BitConnect operated a platform and a digital currency, shutting down in January 2018, with founders eventually vanishing with investors’ money.
BitConnect ceased operations years ago but the BitConnect case has been seeing a lot of action recently, with the US Department of Justice charging Kumbhani for orchestrating the BitConnect scam scheme in February 2022.
The United States SEC said the authority was unable to locate the missing BitConnect co-founder. In a court filing in late February, the SEC noted that Kumbhani’s last known location was in India.
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