Malicious individuals and groups seek (and find) greater ways to get away with other people’s digital assets as the cryptocurrency sector grows stronger, with India’s largest-ever crypto Ponzi scheme costing its victims billions of rupees.
According to an India-based news portal called Onmanorama, victims of the intricate pyramid scam known as GainBitcoin have lost a total of over 1 trillion Indian rupees, which is the equivalent of more than $12.8 billion.
Amit Bhardwaj orchestrated the scam with the help of his ‘Seven Stars,’ as in a standard pyramid scheme. Through multi-level marketing programs, the gang guaranteed its victims a 10% monthly return in Bitcoin-on-Bitcoin deposits for 18 months.
Several investors have already invested their money into the scam before learning that the number of Bitcoins (BTC) is limited and thus the guarantee is not practical. The problem was made more complicated by the death of the mastermind, who died of cardiac arrest in 2022.
Bhardwaj is thought to have made between 385,000 and 600,000 Bitcoins, and authorities in Pune, Maharashtra’s state capital, have apparently tracked down over 60,000 user IDs and email addresses linked to the case.
With Bhardwaj dead, the next top suspect is his brother Ajay Bhardwaj, who failed to comply with a request to reveal his late brother Amit’s crypto wallet login and password to India’s Ministry of Finance Department of Revenue’s Enforcement Directorate (ED).
