The Chandigarh cops have successfully furthered their investigations against the accused of the GainBitcoin scheme scam by filing a charge sheet against four suspects. They swindled a huge amount of about ?6-10 crores (USD 0.8-1.4 million) from a victim in a cryptocurrency investment fraud, as per the report by The Times of India.
Amit Bhardwaj, the serial entrepreneur and Bitcoin "evangelist" in the crypto market, allegedly headed the fraudulent GainBitcoin crypto company, along with brother Vivek Bhardwaj, Pankaj Adlakha and Hemant Bhope.
The charge sheet, which is a huge 1800 pages long comprises of reports from 15 complainants and 27 witnesses. It charges Amit Bhardwaj with fraudulently scamming out millions from the people.
Vivek Bhardwaj is accused of being the main "conspirator", promoting, marketing and speaking at events organized around the scheme; Adlakha has been charged for being involved as a promoter and Bhope for being the "motivational speaker", and personally assured people of the scheme's safety.
The Bhardwaj brothers had been arrested on April 4 for allegedly duping 8000 investors out of ?2000 crores( USD 300 million) via their Scheme.
In September, the Enforcement Directorate had attached ? 42.88 cr in the same Ponzi scheme, with charges against Bhardwaj under Sections 420, 406 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), according to a Chandigarh daily.
Consequently, the suspects will face a hearing on December 4. A copy of the court "challan" will be provided to them with the finalizing and framing of the charges. As per The Times of India reports while the challan pegs the alleged fraud at ?6 crores, the complainant has claimed it exceeded ?10 crores (around USD 1.4 million), with a High Court petition alleging it was "worth ?40,000 crores ( USD 5.6 billion).
The GainBitcoin Ponzi Scheme was co-founded by the two brothers back in 2013. The platform guaranteed 10% monthly returns within 18 months, which included principal as well as 80% profits through MCap tokens. When the investors needed their money back, the company gave excuses of technical glitches, system renewals, and the like, as reported by the victims.
Currently, the Bhardwaj brothers are in Pune jail under detention. The latest complainant claimed that he was lured into their scheme because of the "high-yield" results that would follow. After learning of the brothers' arrests in April, the victim has lodged his own complaint with the cyber crime cell of the UT police in Chandigarh.
In spite of the recent fall of bitcoin below $5000, major Wall Street strategist Tom Lee has established his belief in the recovery of Bitcoin.