Navi Mumbai: The Economic Offence Wing II of Navi Mumbai has seized four bank accounts with close to ₹19 crore deposited in them, suspected to be the money belonging to investors in the One Coin cryptocurrency scheme.
The Navi Mumbai police had arrested 18 accused in relation with the Ponzi scheme on Sunday.
According to the police, the four bank accounts are registered under the names of four non-existent companies. “None of the accounts were registered under the One Coin name. But the investors gave us the details of bank accounts into which they had paid the money, and accordingly we seized the bank accounts,” Senior Police Inspector Shivaji Awate from the Economic Offence Wing II said. One account was seized from a bank branch in Koparkhairane, one from Delhi and the remaining two from Rajasthan.
“We have asked for the KYC details of the bank accounts, and only then it can be confirmed if these accounts were used exclusively for the One Coin scheme. There could be many more such accounts,” Mr. Awate said.
Cops seek custody
Meanwhile, the police approached the Thane sessions court on Wednesday, seeking a revision of the Thane Chief Judicial Magistrate’s (CJM) order sending the 18 accused to judicial custody, and denying the Navi Mumbai police their custody.
“We need police custody for further investigations. We have filed a revision application with the Thane sessions court and are expecting a hearing on Thursday,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Dileep Sawant said.
Main accused at large
The 18 people arrested are organisers of a seminar held to encourage people to invest in the cryptocurrency scheme. The main five accused in this case are still at large, and police have issued a look-out notice for the five accused. “We have alerted airport authorities so that these five accused do not flee the country,” said a police official.
The seminar organisers were arrested on Sunday after Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale, Joint Commissioner Madhukar Pandey, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Dileep Sawant and other police officials posed as participants of the seminar.
At the seminar, the company offered investment packages starting from ₹11,900 to ₹27 lakh, promising investors returns from 2018. As the company is not registered with the Reserve Bank of India, and as cryptocurrency is not recognised in India, the police said the scheme was fraudulent. Around 76 people had invested close to ₹56 lakh in the scheme after attending an earlier seminar.
