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Law enforcement in India located and seized nearly $190 million worth of assets connected with the BitConnect Ponzi scheme.
English-language local news outlet Indian Express recently reported that the local Enforcement Directorate of Ahmedabad seized cryptocurrency worth 1,646 crore ($20.76 million) during its investigation into BitConnect. The regulator also reportedly seized ₹13,50,500 (around USD 15,582), an SUV and electronic devices during raids conducted this month.
The details
Those assets reportedly belonged to people associated with BitConnect — a large-scale scam that defrauded about 4,000 investors across 95 countries. The scam was launched in 2018 and collapsed two years later, leading to $2.4 billion worth of losses.
The situation was dire enough that some decided to act out their revenge through illegal means. In the summer of 2024, India’s Enforcement Directorate said that BitConnect victim Shailesh Babulal Bhatt allegedly kidnapped two people involved in the scheme. The announcement reads:
“ED investigation revealed that Shailesh Bhatt, to recover his investment from Satish Kumbhani, kidnapped two employee of Satish Kumbhani and extorted 2091 Bitcoins, 11000 LiteCoins and INR 14.50 Crore in cash to release the kidnapped employees.”
The news follows recent reports that BBC journalist Nick Robinson says his X, formerly Twitter, account was hacked after he fell victim to an online phishing campaign. In a post he published after regaining access to the account, he wrote:
“I really hope you didn’t buy any Today cryptocurrency! I’m afraid my account was hacked. Back online now. I’ll never point out the inaccuracies in an @elonmusk [post] again.”
Crypto scams continue to operate on a large scale. Earlier this month, a crypto sleuth claimed that Coinbase users had more than $65 million stolen from them in the past two months. He wrote:
“This is the result of aggressive risk models and Coinbase’s failure to stop its users losing $300M+ per year to social engineering scams.”
