Pluto Exchange, a Delhi-based cryptocurrency exchange, has allegedly dupped at least 43 investors of more than $272,000 by offering an investment scheme to them.
According to local news portal Millenium Post, the Economic Offences Wing of the local police department is now investigating the possible scam after the victims filed an official complaint.
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Joginder Kumar, one of the victims, said that he first met an operator of the crypto exchange who offered him a scheme that will give a 20 to 30 percent monthly return on the investments. He invested around $6,800 in the scheme.
The operators of the exchange lured investors claiming that they are running a crypto trading and mining operation under the company F2poolminin, which will guarantee hefty monthly returns.
Pluto Exchange CEO, Bharat Verma, along with six other people involved with the exchange were named in the complaint.
A ‘Too Good to Be True’ Scheme
The investors were alarmed when they did not receive anything as interest on their investment in the bank accounts, even after months. Kumar met the CEO to enquire about the non-payments, but he assured “due to down rates of Bitcoin and due to seized accounts” the company could not transfer the funds and asked Kumar to wait for a few more months.
However, the exchange operators moved their base from Delhi to Dubai leaving dozens of investors behind without any update. The complaint detailed that the directors of the exchange, who were named as perpetrators, collected over $6.8 million for their cryptocurrency business.
Pluto Exchange was launched as a mobile Bitcoin trading platform in 2017 that allowed transactions using mobile numbers.
Furthermore, the local police highlighted that the alleged fraudsters offered commissions to the investors if they bring more investors, making it a classic Pyramid scheme.