Ahmedabad: 150 people cheated of Rs 64 lakh in crypto investment fraud

AHMEDABAD: A 40-year-old man from Solapur in Maharashtra on Saturday filed a complaint with CID (crime) police of Ahmedabad alleging that a UK firm and three others cheated him and nearly 150 people of around Rs 64 lakh in an investment fraud.
In Jan, Ganesh Vagh, a resident of Aakluj village in Solapur, came across a Facebook page of one of the accused, Tilak Verma, who introduced himself as a resident of Vapi.On the page, Vagh found a scheme of investment in the form of USDT — a crypto-currency issued by Tether.
Under the scheme, a company which runs the portal XUSDTminer.com from Ilford in London offers 2% daily returns on a minimum investment of $$17 and one may withdraw US$5 every day.
Vagh registered on the portal and started getting 2% daily returns after which he began investing more money.
Similarly, Vagh’s other friends were among the 150 people who invested around Rs 40 lakh in the scheme. Some of those also invested Rs 24 lakh under different IDs on the portal to avail themselves of a free trip to Dubai, which they were never given.
Vagh said that the money, 2% of the daily earnings, was being deposited in their account till June 4 from a branch of a private bank in Nadiad.
After June 4, all the IDs the investors had created were shut and the accused including Verma, Anil Dod and Jayant Pachhar went incommunicado.
CID (crime) police registered a complaint of breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy under relevant sections of the IPC and under Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act and the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act.