Indian police have reportedly discovered an alleged multi-million dollar cryptocurrency scam, involving a BitConnect promoter, local media outlet the Times of India reported on June 3.
The
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Gujarat, India, has accused
Divyesh Darji — a promoter of now-defunct cryptocurrency investment
program BitConnect that ceased
its operations in January of last year — of luring people to invest
into “Regal Coin,” promising unrealistic returns of as high as 5,000% on
investment. A CID official said that the estimated amount of the scam
reaches into the tens of millions of rupees.
Per the CID, Darji
began offering the investment scheme back in 2017, asking potential
investors to buy the coin with an investment of $2 to get $100 on each
Regal Coin. A CID official said that “Darji had promised that the
investor would get the principal amount in 99 days. He had also promised
to give interest on principal amount as per robotic trading profit
along with 1% to 1.6% bonus as referral bonus at every 11 days.”
The
scam was discovered after a Surat resident, Vishal Savalia approached
the CID saying that he had lost around $26,783 in the Regal Coin scam. A
CID official further explained that “Savalia had allegedly given the
money to Darji’s daughter, Dimki through another accused and Darji’s
aide, Ramdayal Purohit and Dimki herself had downloaded Regal Coin app
in Savalia’s cellphone and get him registered on its website.”
According
to the police, only Purohit is presently under arrest, while Darji was
released on bail a month ago and is on the lam. This is reportedly the
third case involving Darji.
At the end of August 2018, Indian police arrested
Darji for allegedly promoting BitConnect and scamming investors. Darji
reportedly said that he had been the India head of BitConnect. The CID
claims that staff at the BitCoinnect office in Surat admitted that
promoters had amassed “crores of rupees from thousands of investors.”
In February of this year, India’s Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the cyber forensic lab and Cyber Protection Awareness and Detection Centre, with a special unit focused on cryptocurrency.
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