The saga of BitConnect, a major cryptocurrency scam, is taking a new turn, as one of the BitConnect co-founders is now wanted by the Indian state police.
Satish Kumbhani, an Indian national and alleged founder of the BitConnect cryptocurrency scam, has become the subject of a new police investigation in India.as reported on Wednesday by The Indian Express.
The Pune Police, which reports to the police in the Indian state of Maharashtra, launched an investigation into Kumbhani after a Pune-based lawyer filed a complaint claiming to have lost some 220 Bitcoin (BTC), or $5.2 million., due to BitConnect. The whistleblower said that his original investment was 54 BTC, with returns of 166 BTC, which he allegedly used to reinvest in platforms.
The whistleblower noted that the transactions between him and the suspects took place between 2016 and June 2021, pointing to six other people allegedly involved in the scam along with Kumbhani. No arrests have been made in the case, the report notes.
BitConnect is one of the largest scam schemes in crypto history, with Ponzi orchestrators reportedly fraudulently raising some $2.4 billion from duped investors. Launched in February 2016, BitConnect operated a digital currency and platform, shutting down in January 2018, with the founders eventually disappearing with investor money.
Even though BitConnect ceased operations years ago, the case with BitConnect has seen a lot of action recently, with the Justice Department accusing Kumbhani of orchestrating the BitConnect scam scheme in February 2022.
Subsequently, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the authority was unable to locate the missing BitConnect co-founder. In a court filing in late February, the SEC noted that Kumbhani’s last known location was his native India.
BitConnect is not the only cryptocurrency scam whose main organizers are currently missing. Global prosecutors and authorities are also investigating scams like OneCoin, a $4 billion Ponzi scheme that ceased operations in late 2019.
Ruja Ignatova, the Bulgarian-German creator of OneCoin, was listed in the top ten most wanted list by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in June 2022. Ignatova, widely known as “Cryptoqueen” in the cryptocurrency community, was last seen time in 2017.
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