- Victim claims he lost over 200 Bitcoins worth $5.2 million
- BitConnect was one of the most popular projects in the initial coin offering craze
Satish Kumbhani, the founder of BitConnect crypto protocol, is wanted by Indian police after an investor in Pune, a city in the southwest, named him in a missing Bitcoin complaint, CoinDesk reported.
Indian lawyer lost $5.2m in latest development
A local lawyer filed a complaint known as a First Information Report (FIR). He claims he lost over 200 Bitcoins worth $5.2 million (Rs 420 million) on a number of different cryptocurrency investment platforms.
Police in India prepare a FIR after verifying the facts within a complaint. It requires an official investigation.
BitConnect: the scam
Established in 2016, BitConnect was one of the most popular projects in the initial coin offering (ICO) craze that followed, raising billions from enthusiasts. It promised to pay out returns of 10% in interest via its native token, BCC. You would get even more benefits for referring other investors.
Kumbhani indicted in the US, disappeared
Satish Kumbhani disappeared in February 2022 after a US court indicted him in a $2.4 billion Ponzi scheme, in which US investors were defrauded.
In a legal statement earlier this year, US officials claimed Kumbhani had probably disappeared from India. His whereabouts are unknown.
The case
The unnamed lawyer named six people apart from Kumbhani, claiming he was scammed and lost his initial investment, which amounted to 54 Bitcoin.
He stated he supposedly got returns of 166 Bitcoin, but didn’t actually see them. Instead, he was tricked into reinvesting his returns into various protocols between 2016 and 2021, as reported by Indian Express.
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