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Ponzi Scheme Fraud
The CBI has conducted search operations across seven locations after registering a case of Rs 350 crore crypto ponzi scam against seven persons, officials said Friday. The accused persons were allegedly running seven separate modules based in the cities of Delhi, Hazaribag, Bathinda, Ratlam, Valsad, Pudukkottai and Chittorgarh, taking money from gullible investors promising investments in cryptocurrencies, they said. "These ponzi schemes were being promoted through multiple social media groups. An analysis of bank account transactions and cryptocurrency wallets has revealed that the illegal proceeds from these schemes were being converted into cryptocurrencies to obscure their origin," CBI's spokesperson said in a statement. It is alleged that they had conducted transactions of over Rs 350 crore in these schemes, the officials said. On Thursday, the agency swooped down at locations in Delhi, Jharkhand, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. During the searches,
Alleged ponzi scheme operator Bhupendrasinh Zala collected Rs 450 crore from 11,000 investors through 17 offices he set up across Gujarat between 2020 and 2024, a police official said on Monday. Zala, a resident of Himmatnagar town of Sabarkantha, was held from Mehsana district on December 27 after being on the run for almost a month. He is in police custody till January 4. During interrogation, it was revealed that Zala, through his entity BZ Financial Services, collected Rs 450 crore from unsuspecting investors by offering them unusually high returns on deposits, said Deputy Inspector General of Police (CID-Crime) Parikshita Rathod. "He opened 17 branches across Gujarat to target investors. Our investigation has found he collected Rs 450 crore in four years and then purchased movable and immovable assets worth Rs 100 crore. Moreover, he did not pay Rs 100 crore to depositors as promised," she told reporters in Gandhinagar. "So far, we have learnt that nearly 11,000 individuals ..
The CBI has arrested the director of a Durgapur-based company in connection with its probe into a ponzi scam case, a senior official said on Wednesday. Sanjay Kumar Singh, director of a private firm, also known for his close association with arrested TMC leader Raju Sahani, was apprehended following a 10-hour-long grilling session on Tuesday night, the official of the central agency said. "He was arrested after he failed to satisfy our officers with his replies during the grilling session," the CBI official stated. The private firm director was produced before a city court, which remanded him in three-day CBI custody. "Singh had in 2011 colluded with Soumyarup Bhowmik, the then chairman of Burdwan-based Sunmarg Welfare Organisation that ran the ponzi scheme, and committed financial irregularities," the official said. Bhowmik, currently absconding, and Singh had allegedly misappropriated funds to the tune of Rs 419.90 lakh, the CBI official stated. Last month, Sahani was arrested