ED Records Statement Of Audit Company Employee In Bitcoin Scam; CBI Asks Him To Appear

Mumbai: The ED and the CBI on Wednesday ramped up their investigations against Bitcoin Ponzi 'scam' suspect Gaurav Mehta, a day after BJP made public purported voice notes to allege that Congress and NCP (SP) leaders were trying to encash cryptocurrency to influence Maharashtra assembly polls.

The allegations were refuted by NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule and Congress leader Nana Patole who termed the voice notes released by the BJP on the eve of polling as fake.

Gaurav Mehta, an audit company employee, was at the centre of the action taken by the two federal probe agencies on Wednesday with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carrying out searches at his Raipur residence while the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) issued summons to him seeking his presence before the investigation officer as soon as possible.

The ED questioned him and recorded his statement during the searches. It also seized some computers and digital devices.

ED officials said the agency has widened its ongoing money laundering probe into a crypto (Bitcoin) assets ponzi scam and is investigating the "links" of Mehta and some others with politicians, politically exposed persons and bureaucrats.

The agency attached assets worth Rs 98 crore of actor Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra in April as part of this crypto-ponzi probe. The couple challenged the ED action and got relief from the Bombay High Court.

It was alleged by the ED that the bitcoins were to be utilised for mining and investors were supposed to get huge returns in crypto assets but the promoters "cheated" the investors and have been concealing the "ill-gotten" bitcoins in obscure online wallets.

Kundra, the ED alleged, received 285 bitcoins from the "mastermind" and promoter of Gain Bitcoin Ponzi "scam" Amit Bhardwaj for "setting up" a bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine.

These bitcoins were sourced from the "proceeds of crime" collected by Amit Bhardwaj from gullible investors, it said.

The agency arrested three people -- Simpy Bhardwaj, Nitin Gaur and Nikhil Mahajan -- in the case last year.

The main accused Ajay Bhardwaj and Mahendra Bhardwaj are absconding, the ED said, adding that it attached properties worth Rs 69 crore in the case earlier.

Two chargesheets have been filed in the case till now -- the first in June 2019 and the second in February this year.

The BJP on Tuesday played purported voice notes of Baramati MP Supriya Sule and Maharashtra Congress chief Patole alleging attempts were being made to encash bitcoins to influence the elections.

Sharing the audio clips, in which voices and signal chats purportedly of Sule and Patole allegedly indicate that bitcoins were used for funding the poll campaign, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi had said it is clear that the MVA has seen the writing on the wall that it will be defeated in the polls.

The allegations were strongly refuted by both leaders who said that the voice recordings were not theirs.

Sule said she has filed a complaint with the Election Commission and the cybercrime department of the state against the false allegations. She told reporters on Wednesday that she "did not know Gaurav Mehta".

Patole also dismissed the BJP's allegations and said, "The voice in the clip being circulated is not mine. Even (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi recognises my voice." Voting in Maharashtra elections took place on Wednesday for 288 Assembly seats where BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is facing a challenge from NCP (SP), Shiv Sena (UT) and Congress alliance known as Maha Vikas Agadi.

A former IPS officer Ravindranath Patil, who was arrested in a 2018 cryptocurrency "fraud" case being probed by Pune Police, has also claimed that Mehta had provided him 10 voice notes on the Signal app which had purported audio clips of Sule, Patole, and IPS officers Amitabh Gupta (ex-Pune Police commissioner) and Bhagyashree Navtake, who was the DCP (cyber) in Pune when he was arrested.

He had also sent a complaint to the Election Commission alleging three voice notes were sent by Sule to Mehta in which she is purportedly heard asking the latter to encash the Bitcoins as funds were needed for elections and assuring him that he need not worry about inquiries as once they come to power, they would handle them.

In his complaint sent to the EC via email, Patil stated that according to the chats that he claims to be in possession of, it appears that hundreds of bitcoins worth billions of rupees may have been pumped in the assembly polls and the previous Lok Sabha elections.

It also appears that Mehta is currently having custody of the misappropriated bitcoins, amounting to hundreds of crores of rupees, Patil said in the complaint.

The ED's money laundering probe in the crypto-ponzi case stems from FIRs of Maharashtra Police and Delhi Police against a company named Variable Tech Pvt Ltd and individuals named (late) Amit Bhardwaj, Ajay Bhardwaj, Vivek Bhardwaj, Simpy Bhardwaj and Mahender Bhardwaj, among others.

A number of multi-level marketing agents are alleged to have collected huge amounts of funds in the form of bitcoins (worth Rs 6,600 crore in 2017) from the public with the "false promise" of 10 per cent per month return in the form of Bitcoins.

The Supreme Court handed over cases registered against Variable Tech Pte Ltd across the country to the CBI in December last year.

At least 10 FIRs were registered by multiple police stations in the country against Variable Tech Pte Ltd, the late Amit Bhardwaj and Ajay Bhardwaj and others.

"During the investigation, it shall be open to the CBI to club/consolidate any one or more of the FIRs. It is further clarified that in the event that charge sheets have already been filed by the local police in connection with any of the FIRs, this shall not preclude the CBI from conducting further investigation and thereafter file charge sheets or supplementary charge sheets, as the case may be," the apex court had said.

The CBI officials said that the case was registered in October this year and the agency was looking into all aspects related to the alleged involvement of Mehta in the scam and it may expand the scope of investigation.