Under the terms of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Ahmedabad has temporarily attached movable properties in the form of cryptocurrency, gold, and cash (in INR and USD) worth approximately Rs. 433 crore. These assets are the proceeds of crime in the case of Divyesh Darji and others.
The Gujarat Protection of Interests of Depositors Act (GPID), 2003, the Prize Cheat Money Circulation Scheme Banning Act, 1978, and various sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, were the basis for the FIRs that the ED, Crime, Police Station, Surat, filed against Divyesh Darji, Satish Kumbhani, Shailesh Bhatt, and other accused individuals. It was discovered during a PMLA inquiry that the aforementioned assets were not obtained by the involved parties from their lawful sources of income but rather were the consequence of Scheduled Offenses under the PMLA.
According to an ED investigation, Bitconnect Coin’s promoter, Satish Kumbhani, created a global network of promoters between November 2016 and January 2018 and used the promise of enormous returns to entice people to invest in Bitconnect Coin-related investment schemes. Based on the current investigation, Satish Kumbhani and his friends raised large sums of money and defrauded investors. Subsequently, two of Satish Kumbhani’s associates were abducted by Shailesh Bhatt and his cronies in order to extract a portion of the Proceeds of Crime that Satish Kumbhani and his companions had amassed.
The moveable items that are temporarily attached represent a portion of the criminal gains that Shailesh Bhatt, Satish Kumbhani, and their associates have amassed. Additional research is currently being conducted.
