The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on April 18 seized businessman Raj Kundra’s properties worth over Rs 97 crore in a money laundering case. The attached properties include Kundra’s wife Shilpa Shetty’s residential flat in Juhu, Mumbai and a residential bungalow in Pune.
The agency said in a statement that the Mumbai zonal office of ED has provisionally attached immovable and movable properties of Kundra under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The ED initiated investigation on the basis of multiple FIRs registered by Maharashtra Police and Delhi Police. It has been alleged that Kundra along with others collected huge amounts of funds in the form of bitcoins (worth Rs 6,600 crore in 2017) from the “gullible public with the false promises of 10 per cent per month return in the form of bitcoins”.
“The collected bitcoins were supposed to be utilized for bitcoin mining and investors were supposed to get huge returns in Crypto assets. But the promoters cheated the investors and have been concealing the ill-gotten bitcoins in obscure online wallets,” the probe agency said.
ED investigation revealed that Raj Kundra received 285 bitcoins from the mastermind and promoter of Gain Bitcoin Ponzi Scam Amit Bhardwaj for setting up bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine.
“The said bitcoins were sourced out of proceeds of crime collected by Amit Bhardwaj from gullible investors. Since the deal didn’t materialize, Kundra is still in possession and enjoyment of 285 bitcoins which are presently valued at more than Rs 150 crore, the Enforcement Directorate statement read.
Previously, multiple search operations were conducted in connection with this case, leading to the arrest of three people — Simpy Bhardwaj on December 17, 2023, Nitin Gaur on December 29, 2023, and Nikhil Mahajan on January 16, 2023.