Indian actor Raj Kundra faces ED probe in $790 million Bitcoin scam case

Table of Contents

• Binance, Fine & FIU registration 

Popular Indian actress Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra faced Enforcement Directorate (ED) action in connection to a very big Bitcoin fraud case.

Raj Kundra is a businessman and entrepreneur known for his involvement in various industries, including real estate, sports, and entertainment. In the Indian cinema industry, he is known for her wife Shilpa Shetty who is a very popular actress. He was arrested in July 2021 for making inappropriate n*de videos of struggling actresses for promising to give him a chance in a Web series. He still owns Hotshots and faced charges under Indian laws related to cyber activities and women’s representation.

As per the latest reports, the ED agency found Kundra’s link with Amit Bhardwaj, a mastermind behind the Gain Bitcoin Ponzi scam.

As per the report, they raised nearly 66,00 crore INR from the Bitcoin Ponzi scheme in 2017. Under their Ponzi scheme, they promised to give a 10% return to the investors per month but later they ran away with investors’ money. 

According to ED, Kundra received 285 BTC (worth 150 crores INR) from the Gain Bitcoin Ponzi scheme mastermind to set up a Bitcoin mining firm in Ukraine. 

However, no evidence has been found to prove whether Kundra was directly involved in the Ponzi Bitcoin scam or not but investigators claimed that there is a huge chance of his direct involvement. So far ED attached properties including a residential flat in Mumbai’s Juhu area,  under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). This residential flat was under the name of Shilpa Shetty.

However such Bitcoin-related scam cases are going to show a negative picture of Bitcoin use but simultaneously such cases will force the Indian regulatory bodies to create some crypto-related rules & laws to prohibit any kind of crypto-related scam activities.

Binance, Fine & FIU registration 

As per recent reports, the Binance exchange agreed to pay a $2 million fine for the violation of Indian rules & laws and also reportedly the exchange is ready to re-enter the Indian crypto market with Indian FIU unit registration.

Read also: Foundry USA and Antpool now control over 50% of Bitcoin’s total hash rate