Businessman Raj Kundra on Friday secured bail in a PMLA court in Mumbai in connection with an alleged bitcoin fraud case, newswire ANI reported. He was seen coming to court that day.
However, a special court in January found that there was enough prima facie material to charge Kundra for offenses under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and issued him summons in the matter, news agency PTI reported.
Case details
The case dates back to April 2024, when the Enforcement Directorate attached properties worth ₹97.79 crores belonging to Raj Kundra and his wife Shilpa Shetty, who claimed to have amassed large sums of funds in the form of Bitcoins.
The agency further claimed that investors were lured by false promises of 10% returns in bitcoins. According to the ED, Kundra received 285 bitcoins from Amit Bharadwaj, the mastermind behind the Gain Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme, ANI reported.
Kundra allegedly received crypto assets to start a Bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine. However, as the proposed venture did not materialize, the businessman continues to hold 285 bitcoins, which are currently valued at more than ₹150 crore, the ED told news agency PTI.
Were those bitcoins found?
The charge sheet filed against Kundra stated that he claimed to have acted only as an intermediary in the said transaction but failed to produce “any supporting documentary evidence to prove the same”.
The prosecution, on the other hand, noted that an agreement titled “Term Sheet” was signed between him and Mahendra Bhardwaj. “Therefore, it can be safely concluded that the agreement was in fact between Raj Kundra and Amit Bhardwaj (his father Mahender Bhardwaj) and Kundra’s argument that he acted as a mere middleman is not tenable,” the chargesheet said.
The indictment further claimed that Kundra remembers the exact number of bitcoins received in five specific tranches, even more than seven years after the transactions took place, which “establishes the fact that he was indeed the recipient of the bitcoins as the beneficial owner and was not merely acting as an intermediary.”
The probe agency also alleged that despite being given several opportunities since 2018, Kundra had consistently failed to provide the wallet addresses where the 285 bitcoins were transferred. He allegedly cited damage to his iPhone X as the reason for the missing information, an explanation the agency believed to be a deliberate attempt to destroy evidence and conceal the proceeds of crime, news agency PTI reported.