ED arrests Delhi businessman in Rs 6,600 crypto currency scam

MUMBAI: Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested a Delhi-based event management company owner Nikhil Mahajan on Tuesday in a money laundering case linked to multi-level marketing scam involving bitcoin worth Rs 6,600 crore where Pune-based Ajay Bhardwaj and his late brother Amit Bhardwaj are the key accused.The company allegedly helped the Bhardwaj brothers organise two events in Dubai after inviting celebrities a few years ago. He was involved in layering the proceeds of crime (POC), ED said. Special judge M G Deshpande on Wednesday remanded Mahajan in ED custody till Jan 25. Mahajan through his lawyer told the court that he had not received any bitcoin and Bhardwaj had not said any such things in his statement recorded a few years ago, therefore he has not dealt with any alleged POC. Earlier Ajay Bhardwaj had protection from arrest and now he is a wanted accused in the case. Recently, the ED had arrested Ajay's wife Simpy Bhardwaj and her brother Nitin Gaur in the case. They are in judicial custody.The ED had recorded Amit Bhardwaj's statement in the case in 2018 which is evidence against Mahajan. Amit died abroad in 2022.The ED alleged that Mahajan had received 40 bitcoins from the Bhardwaj brothers for promoting their products by organising events in Dubai and ensuring celebrities presence. Each bitcoin is worth around Rs 35 lakh. Actors Neha Dhupia, Sunny Leone, Sonal Chauhan, Prachi Desai, Aarti Chabaria and others attended the event. The Bhardwaj brothers promoted Variabletech Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based company, after claiming the company through its cloud mining service provider (Gainbitcoin.com) acquired cloud mining hash power (refers to capabality in machines used for crypto mining) from large vendors by paying them in bitcoins.Through the gainbitcoin.com they had collected bitcoin equivalent to Rs 6,600 crore from investors after promising attractive returns but failed to fulfil the promise. Many investors filed cheating cases against the brothers and in 2018 the ED registered the money laundering case. It is alleged that Mahajan's company Katalyst Entertainment used to manage the publicity events arranged by gainbitcoin.com, only for existing buyers as a gratification event.In 2018, Amit Bhardwaj in his statement said he paid 30 to 40 bitcoins to Mahajan's company for arranging the programme in Dubai. He admitted that payment for events and celebrities was made through selling of bitcoins in Dubal Exchange.