Crypto exchange in India under investigation over $200K crypto scam

Indian police are investigating a New Delhi-based crypto firm, ‘Pluto exchange,’ which has been accused of swindling Rs 2 crore (approximately $270K) from 43 crypto investors, according to local reports.

The Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police has suspected one Bharat Verma to be the Director of the crypto company who reportedly lured in clients by asking them to invest in a new token and said they were running crypto-mining operations under the company “f2poolminin”. According to Delhi Police, he worked with seven others who promised clients a fixed return of up to 30 percent per month on their investments and also offered commissions for recruiting other investors. 

One investor, Joginder Kumar, who complained to the Delhi Police, detailed in the report that after he invested Rs 5 lakh ($6K) he did not receive returns which he expected to get in a month. When Kumar brought this up with the crypto firm’s representative, they cited poor bitcoin prices and that Indian banks had seized their bank accounts which caused the delay in making Kumar’s payments.

However, Kumar added in the report that he “waited for a long time,” and eventually never received any funds. Kumar also claimed that he visited the crypto firm’s office to find that the company had relocated to Dubai, UAE. The report stated that Kumar was one of many who had invested their money in the crypto company. 

Kumar also alleged that the director managed to gain Rs 50 crore (approximately $6 million) as part of scamming investors, however, the report did not mention whether the Indian police confirmed this figure. But after the Police filed complaints from around 43 investors like Kumar, they were able to tabulate the funds lost in the scam which amounted to around $200k, the report stated.  

At the time of writing, the whereabouts of Bharat Verma and his co-workers remain uncertain.