New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday said it has attached assets worth Rs 98 crore, including a bungalow and equity shares in Pune, of actress Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra as part of a money laundering probe.
The case pertains to defrauding of investors' funds through the use of Bitcoin.
The attached properties include a residential flat in Juhu (Mumbai), currently in the name of Shetty, and a residential bungalow in Pune and equity shares in the name of Kundra, the federal agency said in a statement.
It said a provisional attachment order has been issued under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach these properties worth Rs 97.79 crore.
The money laundering case stems from an FIR by the Maharashtra Police and Delhi Police against a company called Variable Tech Pte Ltd, late Amit Bhardwaj, Aja Bhardwaj, Vivek Bhardwaj, Simpi Bhardwaj, Mahendra Bhardwaj and several agents, where it was alleged that they Huge amounts of money were collected in the form of Bitcoin (worth Rs 6,600 crore in 2017) from the gullible public with the false promise of 10 percent returns per month.
The ED alleged that the promoters defrauded investors and were hiding the ill-gotten bitcoins in obscure online wallets.
It was claimed that Kundra received 285 Bitcoins from Gain Bitcoin Ponzi mastermind and promoter Amit Bhardwaj to set up a Bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine.
ED said Kundra still has 285 bitcoins which are currently worth more than Rs 150 crore.
The case pertains to defrauding of investors' funds through the use of Bitcoin.
The attached properties include a residential flat in Juhu (Mumbai), currently in the name of Shetty, and a residential bungalow in Pune and equity shares in the name of Kundra, the federal agency said in a statement.
It said a provisional attachment order has been issued under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach these properties worth Rs 97.79 crore.
The money laundering case stems from an FIR by the Maharashtra Police and Delhi Police against a company called Variable Tech Pte Ltd, late Amit Bhardwaj, Aja Bhardwaj, Vivek Bhardwaj, Simpi Bhardwaj, Mahendra Bhardwaj and several agents, where it was alleged that they Huge amounts of money were collected in the form of Bitcoin (worth Rs 6,600 crore in 2017) from the gullible public with the false promise of 10 percent returns per month.
The ED alleged that the promoters defrauded investors and were hiding the ill-gotten bitcoins in obscure online wallets.
It was claimed that Kundra received 285 Bitcoins from Gain Bitcoin Ponzi mastermind and promoter Amit Bhardwaj to set up a Bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine.
ED said Kundra still has 285 bitcoins which are currently worth more than Rs 150 crore.
