Rs 10 crore lost by the Barodians in bitcoin scheme

Rs 10 crore lost by the Barodians in bitcoin schemeIn the Ponzi cryptocurrency scheme, thousands of people were conned across the country, out of which 10 people are from Vadodara.
Around 10 people came forward who were the victims of this scheme to lodge the complaint against kingpin Amit Bhardwaj, his brother Ajay and their accomplice Hemant Bhope.
The victims had attended a seminar organised by Hemant Bhope at a renowned hotel in Sayajigunj explaining investments in Gain Bitcoin floated by Amit and Ajay through Variable Tech Private Limited registered in Singapore. Most of them were lured by the offer and therefore invested in Gain Bitcoin.
The investors were promised with 10% returns in the form of bitcoins. The returns were to be deposited in an online wallet, Zebpay. And also an eighteen-month contract was signed between Amit and the victims in September 2016. They all had invested 64.6 bitcoins in October 2016 and received a 10% return in the online wallet till January 2017.
One of the victims, Pratish Naik and other victims checked their wallets only to find missing bitcoins and also checked the Gain Bitcoin website which was inactive.
A few months later, the website was activated with the changed name called Cryptocurrency Mcap. All of them approached Bhope who told them that it’s a new venture. He asked them to download a new wallet application called Coinbank and link it to Gain Bitcoin.
They were told that if they link the two applications, they’d start receiving returns but unfortunately they never received any of the returns and lost the invested bitcoins.
The current international value of one bitcoin is Rs 4.6 lakh. All the complainants have lost money to the tune of Rs 3 crore.
The mastermind was held in April, owned properties and companies overseas.
Amit Bhardwaj and his brother Vivek Kumar Bhardwaj were arrested by Pune police in April this year. They have believed to have conned over 8000 people across the country to the tune of Rs 2000 crore.
As per the further information, it was reported that he had bought properties in the Middle-East and had also started ventures across the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Singapore, Estonia, Dubai and USA.
In September this year, the enforcement directorate had attached Amit’s properties worth Rs 43 crore which included six offices in Dubai.