Shailesh Babulal Bhatt, an Indian resident, has been arrested under suspicion of kidnapping two individuals to recover money he lost in a scam.
The Indian Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Ahmedabad reported on August 17 that Bhatt suffered losses after investing in BitConnect Coin (BCC), a token associated with the now-collapsed BitConnect platform, which has been widely recognized as a global Ponzi scheme.
Bhatt, along with several accomplices, allegedly kidnapped two employees tied to BitConnect’s founder, Satish Kumbhani, and extorted 2,091 Bitcoin, 11,000 Litecoin, and approximately $1.7 million (145 million Indian rupees) in exchange for their release.
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The investigation further revealed that Bhatt paid his accomplices around $34 million (2.89 billion Indian rupees) for their involvement in the crime. This money was reportedly used to purchase “immovable properties, gold, and other assets.”
The investigation into Bhatt began after the ED received reports from the State Crime Investigation Department in Surat related to BitConnect. He was arrested on August 13 under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act (PMLA), appeared in court in Ahmedabad, and remains in the custody of the ED.
So far, authorities have seized assets worth about $52 million (4.42 billion Indian rupees) as part of the ongoing probe.
BitConnect, once a well-known name in crypto, collapsed in 2018, leaving roughly 4,000 victims in 95 countries with losses totaling around $2.4 billion. In February 2022, the US Department of Justice charged BitConnect founder Kumbhani for allegedly running a Ponzi scheme through the platform’s lending program.
The investigation remains active, with authorities continuing to uncover more details about the crimes involved in this case.
Gode is a Web3 Market Analyst who researches the most important industry events and interprets how they affect the wider Web3 space. Her formal education in media culture & digital rhetoric allows her to employ a methodical approach to evaluating critical Web3 news data, including large-scale events and the wider social sentiment within the ecosystem.
Gode is a mutilingual professional, having studied in multiple universities all across Europe. This allows her to have a one-of-a-kind opportunity to analyze Web3 social sentiments spanning different cultures and languages and, in turn, develop a much deeper understanding of how the Web3 space is growing within different communities. With the rest of her team, Gode works to identify crucial crypto news patterns and provide unbiased and data-driven information.
Gode’s passions include working and communicating with people, and when she’s not researching Web3 news, she spends her time traveling and watching true crime documentaries.
