Man dupes people under ponzi scheme, investors kidnap him

The two men who kidnapped Kushal Chopra, Pankaj and Akash, claimed that he induced them to invest Rs 36 lakh in his company One Coin; the company, however, is alleged to have used crypto currency to run a parallel economy in Europe countries

NEW DELHI: When Kushal Chopra went missing last Wednesday from Gazipur in East Delhi, his sister had expected the worse. Kushal worked in a multinational Bulgarian company.

The police started investigating the case and finally managed to rescue him from his captors.

However, in a twist to the story, it was found that Chopra was not an innocent victim, but a cog in the wheel of an international crypto currency ponzi scheme.

Kushal’s case came to light when he was found missing from his home. His sister reported the case to the police.

She had received ransom calls for Rs 36 lakh by his captors. After analyzing his call records and undertaking manual surveillance, the police managed to figure out that Kushal had been kidnapped.

The police were constantly trying to track the accused in several locations like AIIMS, Safdarjung, Chanakyapuri, Dwarka and Najafgarh.

However, the accused were always one-step ahead and kept changing their locations.

But on January 13, one of the accused switched on his phone, and their location was traced to Laxmi Nagar.

Kushal was rescued from his captors, and the police thought that the case had come to an end. Based on Kushal’s statements, two accused Pankaj and Akash were arrested.

The accused, however, had a different tale to tell as they alleged that Kushal had induced them to invest Rs 36 lakh in his company, One Coin, in September.

He had promised a threetime turnover within three months. Kushal also made them meet the director of the company, Manoj.

However, when the promised turnover never materialized, they chose to kidnap Kushal.

“We also called Manoj to join the investigations. He told us that he visited Hong Kong, where he met the Director of One Coin, Rusa Agnatova, who further made him the director of the Indian branch,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (East), Omvir Singh.

But it was then that the police realised that Rusa Agatova was notorious across Europe. She had used the transitioning of the European economy to a cashless one to introduce her own currency, which was not backed by licensed service e providers.

The financial regulators across Italy and Latvia had sounded the alarm bells earlier this year, and had declared it a financial pyramid (Ponzi scheme).

“The company is alleged to have used crypto currency to run a parallel economy. We have arrested Manoj and Kushal in the case. Efforts are on to identify the other accused,” Omvir added.