Two private investigators allegedly stole 1,137 bitcoins from the wallet of the key accused during the probe into a bitcoin MLM fraud.
India’s financial crime investigation agency Enforcement Directorate has sought the help of police in a case of bitcoin theft worth Rs. 6 crores by the investigators who were assisting the police in a crypto fraud case worth over $260 million., ED officials visited the office of Pune’s Commissioner of Police in the Maharashtra province last Saturday and collected some information about the crime.
The case pertains to two private cryptocurrency detectives allegedly transferring 1,137 bitcoins while investigating a fraud where they were assisting the Pune police. CryptoPotato earlierthe arrest of Pankaj Ghode, a cryptocurrency expert, and Ravindra Patil, an Indian Police Service officer who had taken voluntary retirement and was working as a private digital asset investigation expert.
The case in which Ghode and Patil were assisting the police relates to a cryptocurrency scam registered in 2018 involving 87,000 bitcoins and at least 8,000 investors. According to the ED’s estimates, these bitcoins at the current market rate would be worth Rs. 20,000 crore .this case as well, where the key accused, Amit Bhardwaj, was charged by the ED with running a multilevel marketing scheme called GainBitcoin.
But instead of playing fair, they transferred 1,137 bitcoins to their wallets and gave the police fudged screenshots of Bhardwaj’s wallet. Higher police officials were able to pinpoint the wrong-doing through KYC check of the accused, and a case was registered against them, leading to their arrest. The ED is pursuing the GainBitcoin case against Amit Bhardwaj and his associates, mostly his family members. As India doesn’t have a law that covers cryptocurrency frauds, crypto crime cases are dealt with under different legislations depending on the nature of the crime. The GainBitcoin case was registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act , and Amit Bhardwaj is out of jail on bail.