ED attaches Raj Kundra, Shilpa Shetty’s Rs 97 crore worth assets in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized businessman Raj Kundra's properties worth over Rs 97 crore in a money laundering case on April 18. The attached properties include Kundra's wife Shilpa Shetty's residential flat in Juhu, Mumbai and a residential bungalow in Pune.

The case involves cheating of investor funds through use of Bitcoins.

The probe agency said that a provisional attachment order has been issued under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach these properties worth Rs 97.79 crore.

The money laundering case stems from FIRs of the Maharashtra Police and Delhi Police against a company named Variable Tech Pvt Ltd, late Amit Bhardwaj, Ajay Bhardwaj, Vivek Bhardwaj, Simpy Bhardwaj, Mahender Bhardwaj and number of agents. It was alleged that they had collected huge amounts of funds in the form of Bitcoins (worth Rs 6,600 crore in 2017) from gullible public with false promises of 10 per cent/month return in the form of Bitcoins.

"Raj Kundra received 285 Bitcoins from the mastermind and promoter of Gain Bitcoin Ponzi scam Amit Bhardwaj for setting up a Bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine," the federal agency said.