Law enforcement in Mumbai, India have exposed a group allegedly concerned in a exceedingly cryptocurrency scam that accumulated an estimated one billion rupees (nearly $17 million), local media outlet the times of India reports on February. 17.
The case reportedly led to the freezing of many accounts within the country and to the arrest of 4 people — Sanjay Sontakke, Rajnikant Kumavat, Alpesh Barodia and Kirankumar Panchsara. As per the times of India, the police are searching for a fifth suspect, Ashok Goyal, who reportedly played a key role within the alleged scam.
The criticism that led to the four arrests was filed by a resident of the Indian town of Surat, Umeshchand Jain, who alleged that suspects defrauded him of 10.2 million rupees (about $145,000).
The articles quotes police inspector Sunil Jadhav explaining the scheme:
“The suspect held meetings in Mumbai, Surat, and different parts of Gujarat, and lured individuals into investing their hard-earned cash by promising to double it in 2 months. Initially, the gang repaid a few investors to lure more folks in and then defaulted. Their intention was to cheat.”
According to the report, the group launched a cryptocurrency dubbed “Cashcoin” a year agone, that they then sold to investors, promising them to double their investments.
The offenses registered by town crime branch of the local law enforcement forces are reportedly cheating, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy.
The lawyers of the defendants claim that they're innocent and are wrongly arrested.
Last month, Indian police additionally arrested an associate of a group suspect of conducting a crypto scam involving five billion rupees (about $71.6 million).
A report revealed by crypto analytics company Chainalysis in January revealed that the value of Ethereum (ETH) taken via scams reached $36 million 2018, over doubling in 2018, as compared to 2017.
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