reported<\/a> that the money laundering case originates from police complaints against Variable Tech Private Limited and the Bhardwaj family, who operated GainBitcoin and related platforms.<\/p>\nAccording to the ED, the promoters promised investors huge returns through Bitcoin (BTC) mining but instead defrauded them and concealed stolen Bitcoin in obscure online wallets.<\/p>\n
Kundra received the 285 Bitcoins from Amit Bhardwaj for establishing a Bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine. When the deal failed to materialize, Kundra allegedly retained possession of the cryptocurrency rather than returning it to the original scheme operators.<\/p>\n
The ED rejected Kundra\u2019s claims that he acted merely as a mediator in the transaction.<\/p>\n
The chargesheet notes that Kundra\u2019s ability to recall the exact number of Bitcoins received in five specific tranches after seven years \u201csolidifies the fact that he was indeed the recipient of Bitcoins as a beneficial owner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators found that the agreement titled \u201cTerm Sheet\u201d was signed directly between Kundra and Mahendra Bhardwaj.<\/p>\n
The ED stated that this evidence proves Kundra was a principal party, rather than an intermediary, in the cryptocurrency transfer.<\/p>\n
Missing evidence complicates recovery efforts<\/h3>\n
Since 2018, Kundra has failed to provide wallet addresses where the 285 Bitcoins were transferred, hampering recovery efforts.<\/p>\n
He attributed this inability to damage to his iPhone X shortly after his initial statement, which the ED interpreted as a deliberate attempt to destroy evidence.<\/p>\n
The agency noted that Kundra could not provide \u201cany underlying documentary evidence\u201d to support his mediation claims, despite the substantial value of the cryptocurrency involved.<\/p>\n
Amit Bhardwaj operated one of India\u2019s largest cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes between 2015 and 2018, collecting approximately 80,000 bitcoins worth \u20b96,600 crore from over 8,000 investors.<\/p>\n
The scheme operated through GainBitcoin, GBMiners, and GB21 platforms before collapsing.<\/p>\n
The chargesheet also names businessman Rajesh Satija as another accused party in the case.<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
India\u2019s Enforcement Directorate has filed charges against businessman Raj Kundra and accused him of being the beneficial owner of 285 Bitcoins worth Rs 150.47 crore ($31 million) received from late…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11931,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11930\/revisions\/11931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}