The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday conducted searches at the Chhattisgarh premises of an audit company employee, allegedly linked to a Bitcoin transactions political case in Maharashtra, as part of a money laundering investigation, official sources said.
The house of Gaurav Mehta in Chhattisgarh’s capital city Raipur is being covered under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.
The ED action came on a day when polling for the Maharashtra Assembly elections was held.
The BJP on Tuesday played purported voice notes of NCP (SP) leader and Baramati MP Supriya Sule and Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole alleging attempts were being made to encash Bitcoins to influence the elections.
Mehta’s name was also taken by former IPS officer Ravindranath Patil, who was arrested in a 2018 cryptocurrency “fraud” case being probed by Pune Police.
Patil claimed Mehta shared with him 10 voice notes on the Signal app which had purported audio clips of Sule, Patole, and IPS officers Amitabh Gupta (ex-Pune Police commissioner) and Bhagyashree Navtake, who was the DCP (cyber) in Pune when he was arrested.
The ED sources said the agency has widened its ongoing money laundering probe into an alleged crypto (Bitcoin) assets ponzi scam and is investigating the “links” of Mehta and some others with politicians, politically exposed persons and bureaucrats.
The agency attached assets worth ₹98 crore of actor Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra in April as part of this crypto-ponzi probe. The couple challenged the ED action and got relief from the Bombay High Court.
Sharing some audio clips, in which voices and Signal chats purportedly of Sule and Patole allegedly indicate that Bitcoins were used for funding the poll campaign, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said it was clear that the MVA had seen the writing on the wall that it would be defeated in the polls.
Sule has denied the charges and said she has filed a complaint with the Election Commission and the cybercrime department of the state against the false allegations. She told reporters on Wednesday that she “did not know Gaurav Mehta”.
Patole also dismissed the BJP’s allegations and said, “The voice in the clip being circulated is not mine. Even (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi recognises my voice.”
Patil alleged three voice notes were sent by Sule to Mehta in which she is purportedly heard asking the latter to encash the Bitcoins as funds were needed for elections and assuring him that he need not worry about inquiries as once they come to power, they would handle them.
In his complaint sent to the EC via email, Patil stated that according to the chats that he claims to be in possession of, it appears that hundreds of Bitcoins worth billions of rupees may have been pumped in the assembly polls and the previous Lok Sabha elections.
It also appears that Mehta is currently having custody of the misappropriated Bitcoins, amounting to hundreds of crores of rupees, Patil said in the complaint.
The ED’s money laundering probe in the crypto-ponzi case stems from FIRs of Maharashtra Police and Delhi Police against a company named Variable Tech Pvt Ltd; individuals named (late) Amit Bhardwaj, Ajay Bhardwaj, Vivek Bhardwaj, Simpy Bhardwaj and Mahender Bhardwaj; and a number of multi-level marketing agents who are alleged to have collected huge amounts of funds in the form of Bitcoins (worth ₹6,600 crore in 2017) from the public with the “false promise” of 10 per cent per month return in the form of Bitcoins.
It was alleged by the ED that the Bitcoins were supposed to be utilised for 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.
Kundra, the ED alleged, received 285 Bitcoins from the “mastermind” and promoter of Gain Bitcoin Ponzi “scam” Amit Bhardwaj for “setting up” a Bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine.
These Bitcoins were sourced from the “proceeds of crime” collected by Amit Bhardwaj from gullible investors, it said.
The agency arrested three people — Simpy Bhardwaj, Nitin Gaur and Nikhil Mahajan — in the case last year.
The main accused Ajay Bhardwaj and Mahendra Bhardwaj are absconding, the ED said, adding that it attached properties worth ₹69 crore in the case earlier.
Two chargesheets have been filed in the case till now — the first in June 2019 and the second in February this year.
