On Thursday, 18 April the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized Rs.97.79 Crore properties belonging to Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty in linked to a Bitcoin Ponzi Scam.
On Thursday afternoon the agency issue a statement by announcing its decision to provisionally attach both immovable and movable properties belonging to Ripu Sudan Kundra, also recognized as Raj Kundra, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
ED Statement about the seized Properties of Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty
The statement read, “ED, Mumbai has provisionally attached immovable and movable properties worth Rs. 97.79 Crore belonging to Ripu Sudan Kundra aka Raj Kundra under the provisions of PMLA, 2002. The attached properties include Residential flat situated in Juhu presently in the name of Smt. Shilpa Shetty, Residential Bunglow situated in Pune and Equity shares in the name of Raj Kundra.”
The attached properties comprise a residential flat situated in Juhu, presently registered under the name of Shilpa Shetty, alongside a residential bungalow in Pune, and equity shares possessed by Raj Kundra.
But both Raj Kundra as well as Shilpa Shetty denied any involvement in the case.
What is Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme?
A Ponzi scheme a fraud where people are promised big profits without much risk. But instead of investing the money, the scammer focuses on getting more people involved and uses their money to pay back the earlier investors.
The ED started looking into Variable Tech Private Limited and some people named Amit Bhardwaj, Ajay Bhardwaj, Vivek Bhardwaj, Simpy Bhardwaj, Mahender Bhardwaj, and others. This came after several complaints made by the police in Maharashtra and Delhi.
The investigation says that the accused gathered about ₹6,600 Crore in Bitcoins in 2017 by tricking investors. They promised the investors a 10% monthly return through Bitcoin investments, but they were lying. Instead of investing the money, they hid the Bitcoins in hard-to-find online wallets, according to the ED.
During the investigation, they found out that Raj Kundra got 285 Bitcoins from Amit Bhardwaj, who was behind the ‘Gain Bitcoin’ Ponzi scheme. These Bitcoins supposed to be used to start a Bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine. But the plan didn’t happen, so Mr. Kundra ended up with the Bitcoins, which are now worth more than ₹150 Crore.
Earlier, Multiple search operation conducted in connection of the case where three individual were arrested. Simpy Bhardwaj arrested on December 17, 2023, Nikhil Mahajan on January 16, 2023 and Nithin Gaur on December 29, 2023. All the three people were now in the Judicial Custody.
The main suspects, Ajay Bhardwaj and Mahendra Bhardwaj, are still on the run and have not been apprehended.
In 2021, Raj Kundra arrested in a case related to the creation and distribution of pornographic films through a mobile app named ‘Hotshots’, which relied on subscriptions from users. He was granted bail in this case by the Supreme Court.
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