Ten Barodians lose Rs 3cr in bitcoin scheme

Vadodara: The cryptocurrency-based Ponzi scheme in which thousands of people were conned across the country has a trail in Vadodara too.
Around 10 victims have come forward with complaint against kingpin Amit Bhardwaj, his brother Ajay and their accomplice Hemant Bhope.

The victims had attended a seminar which was organized by Bhope at a prominent hotel in Sayajigung explaining investments in Gain Bitcoin floated by Amit and Ajay through Variable Tech Pvt Ltd registered in Singapore. According to one of the victims Pratish Naik, he and nine others were lured by the offer had brought bitcoins and invested in Gain Bitcoin.

Bhope had promised them returns 10% in the form of bitcoins. This return was also supposed to be deposited in an online wallet called Zebpay. An 18-month contract was also signed between Amit and the victims in September 2016. All 10 of them had invested 64.6 bitcoins in Gain Bitcoins in October 2016 and received 10% return every month in the wallet till January 2017.

Later, when Naik and others checked their wallets, the bitcoins were missing following which they checked the website of Gain Bitcoin, but it was inactive. Few months later, the website was actived but the name had been changed to Cryptocurrency MCap. Naik and others approached Bhope, who told them that this is a new venture and asked them to download a new wallet application called Coinbank and link it to Gain Bitcoin.

Victims were promised that if they link the two applications they will start receiving the returns. However, they never received any returns and even lost the invested bitcoins. A police official said that the current international value of one bitcoin is Rs 4.6 lakh.

“The complainants have lost money to the tune of Rs three crore,” the police official said.

Mastermind held in April owned properties, companies overseas

Amit Bhardwaj, the mastermind of the Ponzi scheme, was arrested by Pune police in April this year along with his younger brother Vivek Kumar Bhardwaj. Amit is believed to have conned over 8,000 people across the country to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore. After his arrest, reports had surfaced about the properties which he had bought in the Middle-East and started ventures across British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Singapore, Estonia, Dubai and USA. In September, the enforcement directorate had attached Amits’ properties worth Rs 43 crore which included six offices in Dubai.