ED Nabs three more in alleged Rs500-Crore Cryptocurrency scam, gets 12-day custody
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ED Nabs three more in alleged Rs500-Crore Cryptocurrency scam, gets 12-day custody
Shimla, July 18,
The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Shimla Sub-Zonal Office, has arrested three more accused in the alleged Rs 500-crore cryptocurrency scam under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The accused, Milan Garg, Sukhdev Thakur and Abhishek Sharma, were arrested under Section 19(1) of the PMLA in connection with the ongoing money laundering investigation.
According to an ED press release issued on Friday, the investigation was initiated on the basis of FIRs registered by the Himachal Pradesh and Punjab Police against Subhash Sharma and other alleged conspirators.
The agency alleged that the accused operated multiple fictitious investment platforms, including Korvio, DGT, Hypenext and A-Global, to lure investors by promising high and assured returns.
The ED said its investigation has revealed that in 2018, Subhash Sharma, along with co-accused including Hem Raj, Milan Garg, Sukhdev Thakur and Abhishek Sharma, launched a cryptocurrency-based multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme through an online platform.
The platform was allegedly migrated to foreign servers hosted on Digital Ocean and operated through domains such as korvio.io and voscrow.com.
The agency alleged that investors were induced to purchase “Korvio Coin (KRO)” through false promises of assured returns, misleading promotional seminars and manipulation of token values.
It further claimed that the scheme functioned as a Ponzi operation, with funds collected from new investors being used to pay returns to earlier investors.
According to the ED, digital records and domain data were deleted to conceal the fraud, but recovered electronic evidence showed that over 2.48 lakh users had invested through the platforms. The total transactions are stated to have exceeded USD 219 million, causing an estimated loss of around ₹500 crore to investors.
The ED alleged that Milan Garg was one of the principal masterminds and the technical architect behind the cryptocurrency platforms Korvio/Voscrow, Hypenext and A-Global.
He is accused of developing and controlling the platforms, managing cryptocurrency wallets, supervising investor migration across platforms, routing investor funds and overseeing the technical and financial operations of the alleged fraud.
According to the agency, Sukhdev Thakur and Abhishek Sharma were among the earliest promoters of the scheme and played a major role in mobilising investors by giving false assurances of high returns.
They allegedly collected large amounts of cash from investors and delivered the money to Vijay Juneja, Masoom Juneja and other co-conspirators on the directions of Subhash Sharma, who has been described by the ED as the mastermind of the scam and is currently absconding.
The investigation further alleges that the two accused earned substantial commissions from the scheme and acquired beneficial interests in immovable properties created from the proceeds of crime.
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The ED also claimed that Sukhdev Thakur operated bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets used for routing funds linked to the scam, while Abhishek Sharma was involved in financial transactions with entities and individuals allegedly connected with laundering the proceeds of crime through cryptocurrency and real estate projects.
Since the three accused were already in judicial custody in the predicate offence, the ED obtained production warrants from the Special PMLA Court in Shimla and formally arrested them. The court subsequently remanded all three accused to 12 days’ ED custody for further investigation into the alleged proceeds of crime generated and laundered through the cryptocurrency fraud.
The ED also stated that it had earlier arrested Hem Raj and Masoom Juneja in the same money laundering case.
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