5 pvt firms under police scanner for crypto fraud

Bengaluru: Cybercrime police have registered a criminal case against the directors of five private firms that allegedly lured people on the pretext of giving them profits on their investments in cryptocurrency. Police have recorded the statements of seven victims, who alleged that the firms contacted them by email seeking their investment in lieu of good returns and mining machines. The lead complainant, Rajiv BS from

JP Nagar

, said he and his friends — Adarsh Sanjeev Naik, Sudheer TS,

Venkatesh Devaraj

, UV Harsha, BM Manoj Kumar and

K Harish Kumar

— were all victims of the fraud. Rajiv said the seven of them invested more than Rs 76 lakh between August 1, 2021, and January 18, 2022. “The suspects did not give us any profit or bonus and also did not provide us with the mining machines promised,” he said.Police said a preliminary investigation is under way to ascertain the claims made by the complainant and action will be initiated after obtaining

prima facie

evidence. While TOI has the list of companies and directors mentioned in the complaint, the details are being withheld pending police investigation. A case has been registered under section 66 of Information Technology Act, section 21 of Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, and sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of Indian Penal Code. There have been a number of cryptocurrency-related cases in recent times involving losses running up to tens of lakhs of rupees.