Delhi woman sent to custody of probe agency ED in Rs 6,000 crore cryptocurrency scam

A special court in Mumbai on Monday remanded a Delhi resident, Simpy Bhardwaj, to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) custody till December 26 in connection with a Rs 6,606 crore cryptocurrency case. Bhardwaj was tried under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Simpy Bharadwaj was arrested on December 17 in Delhi and brought to Mumbai on a two-day transit remand. According to the ED, Bharadwaj is one of the directors of Variabletech Pvt Ltd located in Singapore which lured investors with promises of high returns in bitcoins and the company’s own cryptocurrency.

Accompanied by her husband, Ajay Bharadwaj, and her late brother-in-law, Amit Bharadwaj, Simpy conspired to defraud the public through the website ‘www.gainbitcoin.com’.

As per the ED, Simpy Bharadwaj projected false information about the company’s involvement in blockchain and cryptocurrency mining technology, claiming to have a mining farm in China. Through Gainbitcoin.com, they acquired cloud mining hash power by paying large vendors in bitcoins, said the probe agency.

The ED asserted that Bharadwaj and others misled investors by falsely promising assured returns of 10 per cent per Bitcoin for 18 months through a contract with Variabletech. The accused portrayed an extensive cloud mining setup in China, Hong Kong, and Singapore and told people they could purchase a small part of the cloud mining space (Hash Value) for 18 months through the contract.

The agency accused Simpy Bharadwaj of concealing the end use of the funds collected from investors, emphasising the need to unearth this information.

Bharadwaj’s lawyer, Subodh Desai, argued that she was not a director of any of the companies, only the wife of Ajay Bharadwaj, and her arrest was unnecessary.

After considering arguments from both sides, special judge MG Deshpande stated, “Sufficient opportunity has to be given to the ED in view of the complexity and huge proceeds of crime involved therein and determining the same and finding out the end use,” and remanded her to the probe agency’s custody.