India arrests two suspects in BitConnect scam case, involved in kidnapping and Bitcoin extortion

According to India Today, the Indian Enforcement Directorate has arrested two individuals related to the BitConnect cryptocurrency scam, which involves global fraud, kidnapping, and extortion, with amounts reaching thousands of bitcoins and tens of millions of rupees in cash.

The arrested individuals, Nikunj Pravinbhai Bhatt and Sanjay Kotadia, are suspected of being involved in a kidnapping and extortion case, where the victim was forced to hand over 2,254 bitcoins, 11,000 litecoins, and approximately 1.45 billion rupees in cash. Some of the extorted bitcoins were converted into ETH and USDT and transferred through multiple wallets. The Indian Enforcement Directorate has frozen and seized assets worth approximately 1.9 billion rupees, including cryptocurrency assets, stocks, and cash; to date, the total value of seized or frozen assets in this case is around 21.7 billion rupees. The investigation is still ongoing. The Indian Enforcement Directorate stated that BitConnect presented itself as a high-return investment platform, claiming that its self-developed volatility trading robot could generate returns of up to 40% per month. The agency indicated that these claims are entirely fictitious, aimed at creating a false illusion of growth, including posting about a 1% fictitious daily return rate on its website.