Indian authorities seize approximately $190 million in cryptocurrencies related to the Bitconnect case.
On Feb. 16, according to Cointelegraph, Indian authorities seized approximately $808,563,928,28190 million in cryptocurrencies related to the Bitconnect case, a fraudulent scheme that caused the loss of approximately $808,563,928,282.4 billion to 4,000 investors in 95 countries. After Bitconnect launched in 2016, its founder Satish Kumbhani (indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in February 2022) established a global network of promoters, paying them commissions to maintain the Ponzi scheme, and went on the run after the platform shut down in January 2018.
In August last year, a man from Gujarat, India named Bhatt was arrested for kidnapping, extortion, and violating anti-money laundering laws. Bhatt, who had invested in Bitconnect, kidnapped two Kumbhani employees to retrieve his funds, extorting 2,091 bitcoins, 11,000 litecoins and 145 million rupees in cash, currently valued at 12.325 million rupees. Following Bhatt's arrest, the funds involved in the case were seized by Indian authorities.
