Let’s be real—this wasn’t your average get-rich-quick scheme. The scam, launched in 2015 by brothers Amit and Ajay Bhardwaj, promised investors a too-good-to-be-true 10% monthly return in Bitcoin for 18 months. Spoiler alert: it was indeed too good to be true.
The scammers operated behind a fancy-sounding company called Variabletech Pte. Ltd. Classic move. They used a multi-level marketing structure to rope in thousands of unsuspecting victims. Similar to the Tomar case, they manipulated users through spoofed websites that appeared legitimate to unsuspecting victims.
Then in 2017, they pulled a fast one—switching payouts from Bitcoin to their own worthless MCAP token. Surprise!
The numbers are staggering. Around 8,000 investors duped. ₹758 million gone. Multiple complaints filed across different states, eventually landing on the Supreme Court‘s desk, which transferred all cases to the CBI. The investigation required authorities to meticulously track transactions across numerous crypto wallets to unravel this complex scheme.
Amit Bhardwaj, the mastermind, is conveniently deceased. His brother Ajay is now labeled the main conspirator. Eight arrests so far, including one Imran Pasha nabbed in Raipur. More suspects remain at large.
The Enforcement Directorate has seized cryptocurrencies worth ₹1,646 crore and another ₹486 crore in properties. Not bad.
The victims? They’re everywhere. Eleven investors in Puducherry lost ₹3.4 crore. Over 100 people invested ₹1.10 crore in just three months. They couldn’t withdraw funds or access their supposed crypto investments. Instead, they got a fake dashboard showing imaginary riches.
The CBI is now consolidating complaints from across India, tracing funds, and following international money trails. With over 20,000 cryptocurrencies existing today, scammers have an increasingly complex landscape to exploit for fraudulent schemes. Meanwhile, crypto scams continue to flourish. Who would’ve thought that unregulated digital currencies might attract fraudsters?
