ANTIGUA BARBUDA INVOLVED IN MASSIVE BITCOIN FRAUD OPERATED FROM DUBAI & INDIA

Thane, India Police Commissioner Parambir Singh congratulated India Today and Aaj Tak for the expose -- Operation Bitcoin -- which exposed the fraudsters who duped 25,000 investors for over Rs 500 crore.

Singh acknowledged the exposed while he was speaking at the press conference about the crypto-currency scam.

"I congratulate India Today on bringing to light the scam run in name of Money Trade Coin (MTC). The expose helped complainants come forward and realise that they were being duped by scam kingpin Amit Lakhanpal and his associates. I must compliment India Today on this as we have seen the story, a massive amount of evidence was brought to light by India Today. We are taking into account those details," said Singh.

Amit Lakhanpal, kingpin of this scam, has fled the country after duping investors. He was helped by Digambar Jangle, a police officer at Thane police headquarters. Jangle is absconding too and is said to be with Lakhanpal in Dubai.

Amit Lakhanpal

THE SCAM

Amit Lakhanpal created an image of himself as a businessman through write-ups in magazines including Forbes Middle East. Similarly, he managed to garner attention through meetings with Bollywood personalities, politicians and top businessmen.

He launched ICO (Initial Coin Offering) in the famous Burj-Al-Arab hotel in Dubai with who's who of India and UAE.

Investors fell prey to all this and invested heavily with him. He had launched 105 million MTCs (Money Trade Coins) and had mined around 200 million; such coins, which he initially offered at USD three each but later took it to 6,000 dollars making it reach the billion dollar mark.

The scam only came to light when investors started asking for the return of their promised amounts on which he defaulted multiple times.

Thane police said money laundering angle has also emerged in the scam and help from ED would be sought regarding the same.

"We are probing a money laundering angle as well. His associate has been arrested while the hunt is on to arrest others involved," said Singh.

"The suspect had also boasted about their connections in Caribbean countries; such as Antigua and Barbuda and documents related to that have even been recovered and they are being examined," said another senior officer from Thane crime branch.

Chronicles of Monte Friesner - Financial Crime Analyst