New Delhi: Raj Kundra, businessman and actor Shilpa Shetty's husband, has landed on the radar of the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to a Ponzi scheme. The probe agency has seized properties worth Rs 97.79 crore, which also includes a Mumbai flat registered in the name of Shilpa Shetty. Raj Kundra, though, is not the prime accused in the case.
The case pertains to the masterminds launching an investment scheme called 'Gain Bitcoin' in 2017. They approached investors with a false promise of a 10 per cent a month return, but in the form of bitcoins.
In a short span, they managed to raise Rs 6,600 crore.
The main accused, Ajay Bhardwaj and Mahendra Bhardwaj, told investors that they would use the amount to mine bitcoins which would give instant and huge rewards.
The first couple of months they paid profits to their initial investors from the money that came in from the recent ones. But they stopped when they could not get enough new investors on board.
They bought bitcoins with the remaining money and hid them in obscure online wallets.
The Enforcement Directorate launched the probe after multiple FIRs were filed by Maharashtra and Delhi Police.
The probe revealed that Raj Kundra received 285 Bitcoins from the mastermind and promoter of the Gain Bitcoin Ponzi Scam, Amit Bhardwaj, for setting up a Bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine, ED said.
"Since the deal didn't materialise, Raj Kundra is still in possession and enjoyment of 285 Bitcoins which are presently valued at more than Rs 150 crore," an ED official told news agency IANS.
Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty have denied any involvement in the case and said that they are confident of being cleared after the probe.
"On the face of it, there is no prima facie case made out against my clients Mr Raj Kundra and Mrs Shilpa Shetty Kundra. We have complete faith in the Honourable Judiciary," the couple's lawyer Prashant Patil said.