BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh Special Task Force on Monday arrested an Australian NRI, one of the key players in international crypto currency racket. The STF have found the connection of the fraudster in 22 countries. The accused identified as Harprit Singh, a native of Shivpuri, who later shifted to Australia, had lured more than 100 people to invest in crypto currency and later fled with their crores of rupees.
Earlier on June 25, STF had busted international crypto currency racket and arrested two key players active in India- Rupesh Rai and Brijesh Raikwar. Seema Raikwar, wife of Brijesh was also arrested along with the two dealers.
Special DG of MP STF/Cyber Cell Purushottam Sharma informed in the press conference on Monday the main players of the racket include Malaysian and Hong Kong nationals, besides people based in Mumbai, Jabalpur, Bhopal and other parts of the country duped investors in the name of investing in plus gold union coins (crypto currency).
As the report made headlines in media, the victims of the fraud contacted the STF and gave their statements. During investigations, the name of Shivpuri resident, Harprit Singh, who had shifted to Australia in 2008, had come to light.
The investors complained that Harprit had lured them to invest in crypto currency and later fled with crores of rupees. During the primary investigation, it has come to fore that Harprit had cheated more than 100 people and duped them of crores of rupees.
When the investors in Sydney filed a complaint against Harprit, he flew to Melbourne. However, seeing Australian police mounting pressure, Harprit fled the country and came back home. An intelligence input came that Harprit was hiding in Delhi and planning to invest Rs 100 crore with the businessmen of Amrawati and Rajasthan to start a new business.
To evade arrest, Harprit had planned to leave for Abu Dhabi, however, before he could execute his plan, he fell into the net of STF and was arrested from Delhi.
Harprit had migrated to Australia in 2008 and started a security agency there. He came in contact with the fraudsters and got involved in the racket. The STF had come to know that Harprit had invested in the property worth Rs 12 crore in Australia and had sent money in India to his counterparts.
Foreign national
lured investors
The fraudsters had used the foreign face to lure the investors, a Malaysian nationalist Mal Davidson used the chat with the investors. He would make video calls to the investors and lure them for the investments. STF have seized all his call records. He used to get 3000 Dollars for his services.
Racket had links
in 22 countries
The (PGUC) Plus Gold Union Coin server data was analysed and according to the IP registration the connection in 22 countries had came out. These countries are Australia, Bangladesh, Colombia, Costa Rica, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland, England, Turkey and America. The IP address of Australia had given the clues and after segregating the data it was found that in England 62 IP address were used, in Australia 35, America 34, Hong Kong 26, Japan 20 and in Singapore 19 IP address were found.
From the registered data the name of 79 cities are found including of India and foreign.
Players linked to
Hong Kong-based
company
Most of the players of the busted racket were linked to the Hong Kong-headquartered original Plus Gold Union Coin investment and trading company (linked to C-Cex exchange, which is the international body pertaining to crypto currency).
Importantly, in April 2018, the RBI banned banks and any regulated financial institution from dealing with or setting virtual currencies in India.
