Mumbai Court Summons Raj Kundra in 285 Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme Probe
Another day, another crypto scandal—this time with a Bollywood twist.
Mumbai's legal system just threw a spotlight on one of India's flashiest alleged crypto schemes. The case centers on a reported 285 Bitcoin haul, now tangled in accusations of being a classic Ponzi structure dressed in digital asset clothing.
The Anatomy of a Modern Scam
Forget the boiler room. Today's financial cons run on blockchain buzzwords and the relentless hype cycle. The promise? Outlandish, guaranteed returns. The reality? A digital shell game where early 'investors' get paid with money from the next wave of entrants. It's a tale as old as finance itself, just with a shiny new distributed ledger wrapper.
The 285 BTC figure isn't just a number—it's a monument to misplaced trust. At its peak, that stash was worth tens of millions. It represents thousands of individual bets on a future that never materialized, a stark reminder that in crypto, if an offer sounds too good to be true, it's probably a scam waiting for a court date.
Regulation's Slow Dance with Innovation
Cases like this are the growing pains of a nascent asset class. They force the hand of regulators worldwide, pushing for clearer frameworks to separate legitimate innovation from outright fraud. Every summons, every investigation, adds another brick to the wall of investor protection—a wall that's still very much under construction.
It's the oldest play in the finance book: find a complex, exciting new asset, obscure the risks with technical jargon, and watch the money roll in from folks who don't know their private key from their house key. Some things never change—the suits just get swapped for hoodies.
Kundra receives 285 Bitcoins, allegedly drawn from defrauded investors
According to a local news outlet, Kundra and Satija first appeared in the case through a supplementary chargesheet issued in September last year that the investigating Agency filed. The court stated that it had sufficient prima facie evidence to proceed with a case against the two businessmen for alleged violations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The Agency alleged that Kundra received 285 Bitcoins from the “mastermind” and promoter of the Gain bitcoin Ponzi scam, Amit Bhardwaj, for setting up a Bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine. The Agency added that Kundra still possesses the Bitcoin since the deal did not materialize.
The agency accused Amit Bhardwaj of defrauding investors by promising high returns through cryptocurrency mining. The Delhi police claim Bhardwaj created a multi-level marketing scam that lured unsuspecting investors who gave him Bitcoin in exchange for higher returns. The police stated that he failed to honor his promises to investors and subsequently fled the country. He was tracked down in Bangkok, Thailand, and arrested in 2018.
Kundra stated in his report to the agency that the perpetrator contacted him through social media, and the two began discussing Bitcoin. According to the chargesheet, Kundra claimed he acted as a mediator on behalf of an Israeli friend in the said transaction, but didn’t provide any documented evidence in his defence.
The agency also noted that Kundra had several opportunities since 2018 to provide the wallet address and help authorities trace the funds, but he claimed the phone he was using at the time was damaged. The agency believes Kundra’s narrative about a damaged phone is a deliberate attempt to conceal the funds.
The agency flagged luxury properties, including five residential flats in Juhu and a bungalow NEAR Pawna dam in Pune that belonged to Kundra and his wife, Shilpa Shetty. The agency also alleged that the couple pretended to sell the Juhu flats to conceal them from seizure, but there was no actual change of ownership. The money was transferred between their joint bank accounts to simulate the transaction.
India’s tax authorities raise concerns about the impact of crypto on tax collection
The news comes after India’s tax authorities, including the Income Tax Department (ITD), the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the Department of Revenue, and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), cautioned that crypto transactions make it harder to track and tax income.
According to a previous report by Cryptopolitan, the agency identified several serious threats associated with crypto-related activities. The authorities convened a meeting on January 7, during which they discussed how crypto and decentralized finance tools pose obstacles to effectively detecting taxable income.
India has strict regulations on crypto-related activities. The Asian country imposes a substantial 30% tax on all capital gains derived from cryptocurrency trading and investment activities. Indian regulators also deduct a 1% tax at source (TDS) for every transaction made, regardless of the transaction’s outcome.
The FIU also revealed that the country was making changes to ensure crypto exchanges follow anti-money laundering regulations. In its 2024-2025 annual report, the government entity stated that it had confirmed that 49 cryptocurrency exchanges are now required to follow anti-money laundering (AML) rules under the country’s laws.
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