7/4/2018
PUNE: The man
responsible for GBMiners, the venture which brought about bitcoinmining
to India, has apparently been arrested for scamming investors out of Rs. 2,000
crores. That too, within Maharashtra alone. Amit Bhardwaj, one of the
biggest names in the digital currency diaspora, was brought into the country
after being in hiding for over a year. His brother, Vivek Bharadwaj was also
arrested.
This is the first enforcement case investigation report (ECIR)
to submitted in India under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in
Mumbai. Others included in the ECIR are Ajay Bhardwaj, Rupesh Singh, Hemant
Chauhan, Hemant Suryavanshi and, Kaka Ravde. And that’s not even the whole
list.
Action was taken jointly by the Reserve Bank of
India (RBI), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Cybercrime Cell of
Pune Police. It’s surprising that the case came to light in the first place,
since most the investors were reluctant to come forward, as their investments
fell outside the realm for what would strictly be considered to be ‘legal’. In
fact, it was Parvendra Singh, a businessman from Nanded, who first filed a
complaint and came forward to address the issue.
Bhardwaj allegedly used his position as a cryptocurrency
entrepreneur to cheat investors out of money using Bitcoin-based Ponzi schemes.
Though the figure stated for Maharashtra is Rs. 2,000 crores, officials
told pune-news.com that the scam
could actually be anywhere between Rs. 5,000 crores and Rs. 13,000 crores.
Using his connections in
Bollywood, Bhardwaj got well known faces like Shilpa Shetty, Neha Dhupia and
Huma Qureshi to endorse his book, Cryptocurrency for Beginners. Building his
reputation from that, he continued to woo middle-class investors into investing
using a multi-level marketing (MLM) model.
His first foray into the world of bitcoin included launching HighKart, the first bitcoin based online retailer in India. Other than GBMiners, his ventures also include GainBitcoin, MCAP and GB21.
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