The saga of BitConnect, a serious cryptocurrency rip-off scheme, is taking one other twist as one of many BitConnect co-founders is now wished by the Indian state police.
Satish Kumbhani, an Indian nationwide and the alleged founding father of the crypto Ponzi scheme BitConnect, reportedly grew to become topic to a brand new police investigation in India, The Indian Categorical reported on Wednesday.
The Pune police, working below the Indian state Maharashtra Police, launched a probe into Kumbhani after a Pune-based lawyer filed a grievance claiming that he had misplaced about 220 Bitcoin (BTC), or $5.2 million, on account of BitConnect. The complainant stated his authentic funding was 54 BTC, with returns of 166 BTC, which he allegedly used to reinvest into platforms.
The claimant famous that transactions between him and the suspects passed off between 2016 and June 2021, pointing to 6 extra individuals allegedly concerned within the rip-off alongside Kumbhani. No arrests have been made within the case, the report notes.
BitConnect is likely one of the greatest rip-off schemes within the historical past of crypto, with the Ponzi orchestrators reportedly fraudulently elevating about $2.4 billion from misled traders. Launched in February 2016, BitConnect operated a platform and a digital foreign money, shutting down in January 2018, with founders ultimately vanishing with traders’ cash.
Regardless of BitConnect taking down operations years in the past, the BitConnect case has been seeing plenty of motion lately, with the Division of Justice charging Kumbhani for orchestrating the BitConnect rip-off scheme in February 2022.
The US Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) subsequently stated the authority was unable to find the lacking BitConnect co-founder. In a court docket submitting in late February, the SEC famous that Kumbhani’s final identified location was in his native India.
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BitConnect shouldn’t be the one crypto rip-off whose essential arrangers are at the moment lacking. World prosecutors and authorities are additionally investigating scams like OneCoin, a $4 billion Ponzi scheme that ceased working in late 2019.
Ruja Ignatova, the Bulgarian-German creator of OneCoin, was added to the Ten Most Needed listing by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in June 2022. Ignatova, extensively known as “Cryptoqueen” within the crypto neighborhood, was final seen in 2017.
