- Ongoing crypto scam in India deceives 100,000 individuals, valued at $300 million (2500 crore Indian rupees).
- Eight more arrests related to the crypto scam, totaling 18 individuals in custody.
- The fraudulent scheme utilized multiple cryptocurrencies, manipulated prices, and involved over 2.5 lakh user IDs.
Eight additional arrests have occurred in India, where an ongoing crypto scam, worth $300 million (2500 crore Indian rupees), deceived approximately 100,000 individuals, as reported by local media on Monday. Eight individuals who were taken into custody were part of a group of 70 to 80 impostors, each of whom managed to accumulate over ₹2 crore from approximately one lakh investors, as stated by Director General of Police Sanjay Kundu in reports.
So far, 18 persons including some of the main accused — Hemraj and Sukhdev from Mandi and Arun Guleria and Abhishekh from Una — have been arrested, the DGP said. Abhishek Dular, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG North), who leads the Special Investigation Team (SIT), mentioned that a female constable was among the four police officers detained.
Thus far, a total of 18 individuals, including some of the primary suspects such as Hemraj and Sukhdev from Mandi, as well as Arun Guleria and Abhishekh from Una, have been taken into custody, as confirmed by the Director General of Police (DGP).
“We are now coming to the second layer where people who earned crores from the investment made by new people into the scheme.”
Abhishek Dular, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG North),
The four police officers who were arrested include Constable Naresh Kumar, hailing from Kangra; Sunil Kumar, who serves as a warden at Una’s Bangarh jail; Balveer Singh, a member of the 4th Indian Reserve Battalion in Jangalberi; and Woman Constable Jyoti Kumari, previously stationed at the police post in Hamripur’s Jahu. Additionally, Neil Dhimant, Krishna Dutt, Gurdeep Singh, and forest guard Ram Kumar Rana have also been detained. Sources within the state police revealed that Constable Jyoti Kumari played a pivotal role in the scheme, enticing numerous individuals to invest in it.
The Himachal Pradesh police are actively collaborating with central and financial agencies, as well as other state police departments, as confirmed by the Director General of Police (DGP). The authorities are pursuing legal action against these individuals under the Banning of Unregulated Deposits Schemes (BUDS) Act of 2019, according to the police.
Nonetheless, it is worth noting that the mastermind of the scam, Subhash Sharma from Sarkaghat in Mandi, remains at large. To date, more than 300 complaints have been registered in connection with the multi-crore cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that was initiated in the state back in 2018.
The fraudsters targeted individuals with an investment scheme tied to a cryptocurrency called “Korvio Coin” or KRO coins, which were locally produced in the Mandi district. They utilized three to four different types of cryptocurrencies and set up deceptive websites where they artificially manipulated and inflated the crypto prices. Cryptocurrency is a form of digital currency that functions as a means of exchange over a computer network, operating independently of any central authority, such as the government or a bank, for its regulation and maintenance.
The website employed for the cryptocurrency scam had approximately 2.5 lakh distinct user IDs. The perpetrators utilized a mixture of false information, deceit, and intimidation to retain authority over the scheme, resulting in substantial financial losses for the victims. Surprisingly, over a thousand police personnel also fell prey to this fraud. While the majority of them were swindled out of substantial sums of money, some managed to accrue significant profits by forming chains of new investors and subsequently opting for a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), thereby becoming promoters of the scheme.
