‘Crypto firm directors’ booked for duping investors of Rs 2.86 crore
THE MUMBAI Police last week registered an FIR against five persons for allegedly duping investors of Rs 2.86 crore by promising them high returns on investing in ‘BUXCOIN’, a cryptocurrency the accused claimed would get them high profits.
The main accused, Delhi resident Ganesh Sagar (47), was earlier this month arrested by the Pune Police in connection with a similar scam in the city.
The accused was known to hold multiple seminars in Dubai, Malaysia and various cities in India, including Pune and Mumbai, asking people to invest in cryptocurrency.
In the current case, the complainant is a retired policeman who had invested Rs 4 lakh in the blockchain and got his relatives to invest over Rs 3 lakh.
DCP (zone VII) Prashant Kadam said, “An FIR was registered at the Pant Nagar police station last week. The accused are currently in the custody of Pune Police. We have written to the court seeking their custody for custodial interrogation in connection with the case registered by us.”
The accused used to conduct seminars at a hotel in Ghatkopar every Sunday, where they would invite people to invest money in ‘BUXCOIN’ through their company ‘bitsolives’, said an officer from the Pant Nagar police station.
Sagar, along with Prashant Brahmabhat and Chandrashekhar Bali, were directors of bitsolives and one Anuj Ojha was the administrative head, all of whom have been named as accused. The fifth accused is one Mohsin Jamil, owner of a company involved in blockchain developing and forex trading.
The complainant, along with other investors, had been told that they could withdraw their money after two years and had been promised high returns. The investors could also log onto the company website, where they could see the value of the cryptocurrency rise and fall. However, after two years, when the complainant tried to withdraw the money, he was unable to do so.
Later, he found that even the website of the company had been taken down. When he tried to contact the directors of the company, he did not get any response from them.
Earlier this month, when the complainant found out that Sagar had been arrested by Pune Police in connection with a similar complaint, he approached the Pant Nagar police, where an FIR was registered against Sagar and four others.
Based on the initial probe, the police found that the accused had collected Rs 2.86 crore from investors. An officer said based on the interrogation of the accused, they will ascertain how many investors have been duped.