Bitcoin Is a New Age Opportunity For The Scammers

Amit Bhardwaj has been arrested for allegedly scamming investors out of Rs 2,000 crore in Maharashtra alone. One of the biggest Indian names in the digital-currency market, Bhardwaj, ran a slew of ventures, including GainBitcoin, GBMiners, MCAP and GB21.Cyber cell of Delhi Police has arrested founders of bits2btc Kamal Singh and Vijay Kumar for duping 2,500 people for over Rs 100 crore.

Bhardwaj, who is often referred to as a Bitcoin evangelist and Bitcoin visionary, is an alumnus of MGM's College of Engineering in Maharashtra and has worked with software major Infosys.Bhardwaj founded GainBitcoin in 2013 as a cloud-based platform for trading and mining of bitcoins.It is my vision to get even the smallest investor to ride the Bitcoin wave. I can say with confidence that our early stage hitches have been ironed out and GainBitcoin is firm on its feet to offer a robust, trustworthy trading environment to our 1,00,000+ customers. We have also witnessed a record 47 percent hike in transactions after process restructuring and site revamp,Bhardwaj had told in a statement.

GBMiners was billed as the pioneer of bitcoin mining in India, the biggest in the world outside of China. Bhardwaj's book Cryptocurrency for Beginners was promoted on social media by Bollywood actors Shilpa Shetty, Neha Dhupia and Huma Qureshi. His events in Dubai were attended by celebrities like Sunny Leone and Prachi Desai. Bhardwaj, who went into a hiding almost a year ago, was arrested at the Bangkok airport on Wednesday evening and later brought to Pune to face the trial.

Sources said, they were also running a cryptocurrency mining unit in Dehradun for minting Ethereum coins. Like Gainbitcoin, the trio used to lure investors by promising an unviable return on invested amount. In fact, they have gone a step ahead by promising payout twice every month.

The duo allegedly along with their third partner – SS Alagh had strong links with Bhardwaj and his company Gainbitcoin. During the investigation, police found that the trio had played important role in operations of Gainbitcoin. Interestingly, they had also launched their own currency - HBX and Mcap.Meanwhile, police has been conducting raids in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh (UP) to nab Alagh. Following the arrest of Singh and Kumar on April 25, police interrogation revealed that they had invested money made through scam in mining rig of crypto coins in Dehradun.Police has recovered over 100 Ethereum rigs during the raid along with high-powered computer processors, servers and 500 graphics cards in Dehradun.

The cryptocurrency entrepreneur is accused of cheating investors with his bitcoin-based Ponzi schemes. Highly-placed officials involved in investigations told India Today that Bhardwaj's alleged scam could run between Rs 5,000 crore and Rs 13,000 croreIn a separate case, the Delhi Police had arrested Bitmineplus founders for allegedly duping 5,000 people through a Bitcoin-based scam. Interestingly, the duo from Sonipat had claimed to have drawn inspiration from Bhardwaj’s firm GainBitcoin.