Special Story Ponzi Crypto Mastermind Operator fakes Death, Runs Ponzi Schemes unabated with Associates, Enforcement Agencies initiate Investigations
Special Story
Ponzi Crypto Mastermind Operator fakes Death, Runs Ponzi Schemes unabated with Associates, Enforcement Agencies initiate Investigations
Ever rising price of Cryptocurrency in the international market has increased the greed of people to get rich quickly and this intention has caused thousands of Indians to lose their hard-earned money. Indian currency regulator the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Central government, notwithstanding the financial sector experts’ advice, have still declared Crypto currency illegal in the country. But Fake and Ponzi Crypto continue to thrive in the country and innovators extraordinaire have been giving a tough time to enforcement agencies with their unique modus operandi. Currently, a Crypto game is being played by a mastermind who operates Ponzi and Fake Crypto business faking his death. The Mastermind, who faked his death during the first wave of COVID-19 in the country, allegedly runs the business unabated with a dedicated team of associates. The RBI, after getting a tip-off from people who were cheated with Ponzi Crypto schemes, has alerted enforcement agencies. The Mastermind, owner of ESPN Global Ram Niwas Pal (supposedly dead due to COVID) and his associates are now under the scanner of enforcement agencies. The investigation is on, sources revealed.
The scam surfaced when the Chief Minister of Punjab, after getting several complaints from people, directed the Director-General of Police on Ponzi Crypto Schemes to book operators from ESPN Global who were running an illegal business in the state and cheating people. According to sources, Cyber Cell and Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Punjab Police immediately swung into action and initiated an investigation against ESPN Global and Libra Coin (Virtual Currency).
During the investigations by Punjab SIT and other agencies, it was found that ESPN Global is the operator of the Ponzi Crypto Scheme owned by Ram Niwas Pal, the owner of Speak Asia. According to sources, the investigation team found Ram Niwas dead due to COVID-19. But the investigating officials smelled the rat and it was found that Ram Niwas had faked his death amid the COVID wave to come out of several cases against him as the promotor of Speak Asia. Nearly a decade ago Ram Niwas and CEO of Speak Asia Manoj Sharma was arrested by Delhi Police for allegedly duping investors of thousands of crores rupees. Speak Asia was registered in Singapore but the company had operations only in India. Ram Niwas is well-known in his circle for his innovative modus operandi and a decade ago he had smartly structured his Ponzi schemes to exploit the gaps in the various financial-sector regulations in the country. His ESPN Global is yet another innovative scheme in the virtual currency space.
Who operates if Ram Niwas is dead? Investigators found that now the face of the company to run the Ponzi crypto scheme is Karan Dwivedi who has already faced a few charges of scams. According to sources, the investigators have identified a person known as Nanda in North India and Harsh Agrawal as the main operators of fake virtual currency including Libra Coin.
Requesting anonymity, a former executive of ESPN Global said, to make money ex Speak Asia people joined hands again and new faces were put forward as frontline operators of allegedly lucrative virtual currency schemes. Fake videos and websites are a testimonial to the fact how these operators manipulated and lured people. After gathering all proofs, the enforcement agencies would soon initiate legal action against top officials and operators of the Scheme. It is reliably learnt that a special team has been set up to locate Ram Niwas, Karn Dwivedi, Dr Harsh Agrawal, and other close associates. ESPN Global officials were not immediately available for comment.
Cryptocurrency is said to be one of the greatest technological breakthroughs since the advent of the Internet. It is a decentralized payment system, which lets people send currency to each other over the web without the need for a trusted third party such as a bank or financial institution. In India, the RBI, Union Finance Ministry and SEBI warned people against cryptocurrency trading. The Finance Ministry has clarified that Virtual currencies are also not legal tender. Hence, VCs are not currencies. The RBI has also clarified that it has not given any licence/ authorization to any entity/ company to operate or deal with Bitcoin or any virtual currency.
