Indian police accused the husband of a Bollywood star of defrauding crypto investors

Police seized $12 million from Raj Kundra, the husband of famous local actress Shilpa Shetty, suspecting him of involvement in the Gain Bitcoin crypto scam that defrauded investors of $800 million..

While investigating the Gain Bitcoin case, investigators identified businessman Raj Kundra, husband of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty.. The businessman is not the main suspect in the case, police explained. But his assets, including a residential property in Mumbai registered in his wife's name, have been confiscated.

The Gain Bitcoin project was founded in 2017. Its creators Ajay Bhardwaj and Mahendra Bhardwaj promised investors a monthly profit in Bitcoin: 10% of the invested funds. In total, the creators of Gain Bitcoin raised $800 million. Law enforcement officials say that money raised from new participants was used to distribute payments to early investors. When the pyramid stopped receiving investments from new users, payments stopped, and the organizers converted the remaining funds into bitcoins, storing them in anonymous digital wallets.

According to prosecutors, Kundra received 285 bitcoins from Amit Bhardwaj, which are now worth more than $18 million.. These coins were intended to open a mining farm in Ukraine, but the idea was never realized, and the bitcoins remained with Kundra. The husband and wife deny involvement in the fraudulent scheme.

At the beginning of the year, Indian police arrested foreigners who created a fraudulent India SEBI application for investing in cryptocurrencies. The attackers managed to defraud local citizens out of $1.8 million.