Mumbai. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday raided the Chhattisgarh-based premises of an employee of an audit company allegedly linked to the Bitcoin political transactions case in Maharashtra as part of its money laundering probe. Official sources gave this information. He told that searches are being conducted under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at Gaurav Mehta’s house in Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh.
This action of ED has taken place at a time when voting for Maharashtra Assembly elections is going on. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday played the purported voice recording of Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader and Baramati MP Supriya Sule and Congress Maharashtra unit chief Nana Patole and alleged that Bitcoin is being used to influence elections. An attempt was being made to cash in.
ED sources said the agency has expanded the scope of its ongoing money laundering probe into the crypto (Bitcoin) asset Ponzi scam and the “links” of Mehta and some other people and bureaucrats with political leaders are being probed. In April, the agency had attached assets worth Rs 98 crore of actress Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra as part of this crypto-Ponzi investigation. The couple had challenged the ED action and got relief from the Bombay High Court.
BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi shared some audio clips, in which Sule and Patole’s purported voices and Signal chat purportedly hint at the use of Bitcoin to finance the election campaign. Trivedi said that Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is clearly seeing its defeat in the elections. Sule has denied the allegations and said that he has filed a complaint against the false allegations with the Election Commission and the state cyber crime department. She told reporters on Wednesday that she “does not know Gaurav Mehta”.
Patole also rejected BJP’s allegations and said, “My voice is not in the clip being broadcast. Even (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi recognizes my voice.” ED’s money laundering probe into crypto-Ponzi case by Maharashtra Police and Delhi Police into a company called Variable Tech Pvt Ltd; Persons named (Late) Amit Bhardwaj, Ajay Bhardwaj, Vivek Bhardwaj, Simpi Bhardwaj and Mahendra Bhardwaj; And related to the FIR lodged against several ‘Multi-Level Marketing Agents’. It is alleged that the accused collected huge amounts of money (Rs 6,600 crore in 2017) in the form of Bitcoin from the public with the “false promise” of 10 percent profit per month.
The ED had alleged that the Bitcoins were to be used for mining and the investors were supposed to get huge profits in the crypto currency, but the promoters “cheated” the investors and hid the “misappropriated” Bitcoins in obscure online wallets. . The agency said Kundra had received 285 bitcoins from Amit Bhardwaj, the main conspirator and promoter of the Gain Bitcoin Ponzi scam, to set up a bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine.
The ED said these bitcoins were obtained from “proceeds of crime” collected by Amit Bhardwaj from gullible investors.
The agency had arrested three people in this case last year – Simpi Bhardwaj, Nitin Gaur and Nikhil Mahajan.
ED said that the main accused Ajay Bhardwaj and Mahendra Bhardwaj are absconding. It said that it had already attached assets worth Rs 69 crore in this case. So far two chargesheets have been filed in this case. The first charge sheet was filed in June 2019 and the second in February this year.