Mumbai police have booked the managing director of Coin ZX, an Indian cryptocurrency trading platform that is allegedly scamming investors out of $23 million (Rs 200).
Kasturba Marg police, filed last week, have launched lawsuits against now Dubai-based Ravi Mahaseth and five other individuals who say the police are involved in the fraud.
According to the English Language News Outlet, complaints about Coin ZX first surfaced in January 2023 Hindustan Times. One 25-year-old man said he invested a small $5,000 in Coin ZX after attending a multi-level marketing seminar.
Man, Mohammad Arif informed the police that a representative of Coin ZX told him that the platform would invest his money Bitcoinand he will be able to withdraw his investment (including profits) in six months.
Mumbai police are currently reporting that Coin ZX has fraudulent people across India, and authorities in Hyderabad have filed a lawsuit against Mahases and Coin ZX two weeks ago.
In this particular example, one complainant reported that he was introduced to Coin ZX by one of Mahases’ fellow Ramesh Puri and after investing about $1,300, he received a return from Coin ZX for four months.
The victim also encouraged friends and family to put money in Coin ZX’s investment scheme, and his contact information invested something between $1,150 and $13,800 (Rs 1 Lakh to Rs 12 lakh).
However, payments to investors stopped four months later. At that point, Coin ZX told client it was because of a technical problem.
The company has pledged investors whose returns will resume in another four months, and has promised that all outstanding payments will be provided within 20 months.
However, Hyderabad Central Crime Station said in its first information report that both claims were false and many investors closed ZX before they realized the company was fraudulent.
Police in Hyderabad have booked Mahases, Puri and several others based on sections 406, 420, 120-B of the Indian Criminal Code.
However, at some point after the initial complaints against Coin ZX, Ravi Mahaseth moved to Dubai, UAE.
Although the United Arab Emirates and India have an extradition treaty, Mahases’ exact location is currently unknown.
His LinkedIn profile still lists him as living in Mumbai, but his Facebook and Instagram accounts are not listed anywhere.
His Instagram features posts from Dubai, where he appears to have participated in the “4th International Conference” of Vitnixx AI, which appears to be his latest vehicle.
Mahaseth is said to have been involved in other investment companies, including FX & Smart Bull, Smart X and Samruddhi Multi Trade Pvt Ltd.
Cryptocurrency fraud has been a major problem in India in recent years, with Asian countries ranked fifth in 2023 in terms of the number of complaints related to cryptocurrency fraud (840) and the total lost amount ($44 million).
Only today, the Indian Enforcement Bureau raided several facilities linked to India’s national Chirag Tomar. He was sentenced to five years in the United States after committing the crime of using a Coinbase website spoofed to steal more than $20 million.
And last week, Indian authorities seized $190 million in cryptocurrency, which was founded in 2016 by Satish Kumbani of India’s Hemal, and was stolen as part of the infamous BitConnect Ponzi scheme, which scams Bitcoin investors over $3 billion.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
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