Crypto currency fraud: Ahmedabad firm’s employee arrested

In the application, submitted on Tuesday, the people had stated that the company, Brio Hydrophonics, had convinced them of investing virtual Crypto currency in their firm which will be returned within four months at a value 10 times higher. The application had named six accused.

An FIR was registered against the six accused — Pravin Patel, Kamal Joshi, Hiren Thakkar, Mihir Pathak, Jayanti Patel and Haresh Limbania — on Wednesday at the cyber crime cell.

The six have been booked under IPC sections 406 (Punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 506 (2) (Punishment for criminal intimidation) and 120 (B) (Punishment of criminal conspiracy).

“This is an interstate scam and we are investigating how many victims from other states were affected. Thakkar was the main link between the company and the investors from central Gujarat. He was chosen because he had worked in mutual fund companies before and was well versed with brokers, investors and potential clients,” said DCP, Crime Branch, Jaydeepsinh Jadeja.

According to police, the six accused had set up an office in Ahmedabad in September 2017 and planned to sell online pay-way coins. They held multiple seminars and meetings to attract investors and convinced them that if an individual invested in a pay-way coin worth Rs 7, the company will enhance its value to Rs 100 within a stipulated time. The total investment made was Rs 17,19,000 on 2,00,427 coins in Vadodara alone. The police is speculating that the total scam could amount to Rs 5 crore or more across other cities and states like Maharashtra and Goa.

The accused assured the victims that the trade will be legitimate as the cryptocurrency will be listed on exchanges. To convince people of the authenticity, the owners held seminars across the country and kept the victims in loop by sharing information on a WhatsApp group. They eventually listed their cryptocurrency on a cryptocurrency trading platform, the police said.

However, one of the accused Kamal Joshi fled with Rs 2.5 crore cash, forcing the owners to shut the platform. They then promised the victims to revive the digital money in agro trade. According to police, the investors received no physical receipt for the investments. They were made to maintain a log on a pay-way application, which the owners shut down along with the company.