Mumbai police have arrested four persons suspected of being involved in a multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency scam, according to the Times of India.
According to the February 17 report, the gang allegedly duped people out of 1 billion rupees ($14 million) in a cryptocurrency scam.
The group launched a cryptocurrency called Cashcoin a year ago and promised investors to double their money in two months.
According to the report, Mumbai police arrested four people; however, the mastermind of the scam - Ashok Goyal - is still at large.
The group spanned its operations across multiple cities in India, and its dubious activities first surfaced when Surat-based investor Umeshchand Jain filed a police complaint alleging the perpetrators defrauded him of 10.2 million rupees (around $145,000).
Updating on the case to the local media, police inspector Sunil Jadhav said: “The accused held meetings in Mumbai, Surat, and other parts of Gujarat, and lured people into investing their hard-earned money by promising to double it in two months. Initially, the gang repaid a few investors to lure more people in and then defaulted. Their intention was to cheat.”
According to police, the group was operating multiple bank accounts in the country and siphoned investors funds via bank transfers. The police froze all accounts linked to the alleged perpetrators.
The lawyers of the defendants, however, are claiming that the arrested persons are innocent and were accused wrongly by the city police.
Crypto in India
The Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank, last year, barred all operating banks in the country from maintaining accounts of cryptocurrency exchanges and other crypto-related businesses. This, however, could not stop the black market crypto schemes in the country usually pursued by fraudsters.
Last October, the Indian authorities busted a $3 billion crypto Ponzi scheme which even involved the kidnapping of a property dealer.
