In recent developments of the cryptocurrency scam scheme BitConnect, one of its co-founders has now become wanted by the Indian state police, as reported by Cointelegraph.
According to Cointelegraph, Satish Kumbhani, an Indian national and founder of the cryptocurrency ponzi scheme BitConnect, has been held under a new set of police investigations in India. Pune police, which functions under the supervision of Indian state Maharashtra police, launched a probe into Kumbhani on the basis of a Pune lawyer filing a complaint that he had lost about 220 Bitcoin (BTC) or $5.2 million, due to BitConnect. The lawyer stated that Kumbhani’s original investment was 54 BTC, and expected a return of 166 BTC, which he allegedly used to reinvest into his platforms. The claimant mentioned that transactions between him and the suspect took place between 2016 and June, 2021, with the suspect list pointing to six more people involved in the scam. As of yet, no arrests have been made.
On the basis of information by Cointelegraph, BitConnect is considered to be one of the biggest scam schemes in the history of cryptocurrency, with those involved expected to have illegally raised close to $2.4 billion from uninformed investors. Launched in February, 2016, BitConnect maintained a platform and a digital currency, which shut down in January, 2018, and founders being on the run with investors’ money. Despite BitConnect ceasing operations years back, Department of Justice charged Kumbhani for starting the BitConnect scam scheme in February, 2022. United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said that it was unable to locate the missing BitConnect co-founder.
Moreover, Cointelegraph data’s mentioned that apart from BitConnect, global prosecutors and investigators are looking into scams such as OneCoin, a four billion dollars ponzi scheme that stopped operating in late 2019. Ruja Ignatova, founder, OneCoin, was added to the ten most wanted list by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
(With insights from Cointelegraph)
Also read: Digital currencies in governance: the balance between privacy and transparency