Actor Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra’s assets worth Rs 98 crore are attached by the ED
As part of a money laundering inquiry, the Enforcement Directorate said on Thursday that it has seized assets worth Rs 98 crore, including equity shares and a Pune villa owned by actress Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra.
The lawsuit deals with using Bitcoins to defraud investors of their money.
According to a statement from the federal government, the attached assets include equity interests in the name of Kundra, a residential house in Pune, and a residential property in Juhu, Mumbai, now owned by Shetty.
According to the statement, a provisional attachment order worth Rs 97.79 crore has been issued to attach these assets in accordance with the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The money laundering case is the result of Federal Investigations (FIRs) filed by the Delhi Police and Maharashtra Police against a company called Variable Tech Pte Ltd, Late Amit Bhardwaj, Ajay Bhardwaj, Vivek Bhardwaj, Simpy Bhardwaj, Mahender Bhardwaj, and several agents. It was claimed that these individuals had amassed enormous sums of money from the unsuspecting public in the form of Bitcoins (worth Rs 6,600 crore in 2017) under false pretenses of providing 10% monthly returns in the form of Bitcoins.
The ED said that the promoters had defrauded the investors and had been hiding the illicitly obtained Bitcoins in secret online wallets.
It said that in order to establish a Bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine, Kundra got 285 Bitcoins from Amit Bhardwaj, the architect and marketer of the Gain Bitcoin Ponzi scheme.
According to the ED, Kundra still has 285 Bitcoins, which are now worth over Rs 150 crore.
