SUMMARY
In BitConnect case, a US Federal District Court in San Diego has ordered that over $17 Mn in restitution be returned to approximately 800 victims across 40 countries
One of the two technical experts, Pankaj Ghode, has been granted bail by a Pune Sessions Court
The Pune District Court has scheduled the next hearing of the case on February 10
Last week, a US Federal District Court in San Diego, California, ordered that over $17 Mn in restitution be distributed to approximately 800 victims, from more than 40 different countries, who were duped by BitConnect, a massive cryptocurrency investment scheme, which defrauded thousands of investors worldwide.
Founded by Satish Kumbhani, BitConnect is regarded as one of the biggest global cryptocurrency frauds. While Kumbhani was indicted by the US court in February last year, the entire development raises questions over India’s law enforcement agencies in handling such cases.
Back home, the case related to India’s biggest crypto ponzi scheme, GainBitcoin, is being heard only at a local level, and no progress has been made in giving relief to the victims, even after the death of mastermind Amit Bharadwaj due to cardiac arrest one year ago.
After Pune Police filed a chargesheet against Amit Bhardwaj, Ajay Bhardwaj, Vivek Bhardwaj and other accused in June 2018, the case was filed before a Pune District and Sessions Court under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, 1999 (MPID Act, 1999) for hearing.
Now, let’s take a look at the latest development in the case.
Pune Police Confident Of Restitution
Pune Police is confident of the recovery from Ajay Bhardwaj and other accused in the case. But this could take time.
A Pune Police official who has been working on the case for the last few years said, “We are confident that the victims will finally get justice in the GainBitcoin scam.”
There is a possibility of recovering at least 28,000 Bitcoins. And, the effort is to retrieve those and distribute them among the victims,” another cop, investigating the case, said.
Inc42 investigations had earlier unearthed that over 3,85,000 Bitcoins were collected as part of GainBitcoin and other associated scams.
In the last hearing on December 21, 2022, while most accused, including Vivek Bhardwaj, Hemant Suryavanshi, Hemant Chavhan, Akash Sancheti, and Pankaj Adlakha, were present or had representation in the court, other key accused, including Ajay Bhardwaj, Hemant Chandrakant Bhope, Ajit Swami, Parab, Ajay Mithare, Kaka Rawade and Rupesh Singh, were declared absconding.
The Pune District Court has now listed the case for hearing on February 10.
Ravindra Patil’s Bail Rejected Again
In March, 2022, Pune Police arrested two cybersecurity experts Pankaj Ghode and Ravindra Patil, whom the department had hired in April 2018 to assist with blockchain analysis and bitcoin recovery in the case.
The cops alleged that Patil stole 237 Bitcoins and Ghode transferred 900 Bitcoins from Pune Police’s wallet to his own. As of now, the cops have been able to seize stolen cryptocurrency worth INR 6 Cr only.
While Patil has not been granted any bail, Ghode was able to secure one from the Pune Sessions Court in December 2022.
Speaking to Inc42, victim Raminder Singh Vohra said that the first bail application was rejected after hearing all the parties. However, in the latest bail application in which Patil was granted bail, all sides were not heard.
“The case needs to be processed on a fast track like the US counterparts did in similar cases,” GainBitcoin victims demand.
