Indian police are looking for Bitconnect’s founder after the US charged him with defrauding cryptocurrency investors

After a bitcoin investor reported being duped by the global crypto “Ponzi scheme,” Indian authorities initiated an inquiry into Bitconnect and arrested its founder. The scheme had a market capitalization of $3.4 billion at its peak, according to US officials. The creator and his co-conspirators are accused of obtaining $2.4 billion from investors.

The founder of Bitconnect is wanted by Indian authorities.

The founder of Bitconnect, one of the most well-known fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes, is wanted by Indian authorities in the city of Pune, Maharashtra, after being charged with scamming investors in the United States.

After a local lawyer filed a first information report (FIR) on Tuesday, the Pune Police initiated an investigation into the multi-billion-dollar crypto fraud and arrested its founder, Satish Kumbhani. He also named six other people who were involved in the plan. According to the FIR, the lawyer was duped out of over 220 bitcoins.

The accused are now being sought by Indian authorities, but no arrests have been made. They are also looking into whether the same people misled other investors.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is already looking into Kumbhani, an Indian national (FBI). In February, the United States indicted him for his role as the creator of the fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) classified Bitconnect as a “global Ponzi scheme.”

Bitconnect is an alleged fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platform that reached a peak market capitalization of $3.4 billion.

According to the Justice Department, Kumbhani, 36, of Hemal, India, “misled investors” about Bitconnect’s loan scheme. They stated that it used proprietary technology, including the “Bitconnect Trading Bot” and “Volatility Software,” to “create huge profits and guaranteed returns by trading on the volatility of bitcoin exchange markets using investors’ money.” The authority stressed:

Bitconnect was a Ponzi scheme that paid earlier Bitconnect investors with funds from subsequent ones.

The DOJ noted, “In sum, Kumbhani and his co-conspirators collected nearly $2.4 billion from investors.”