In autumn last year, the Mumbai police announced they were looking for the person who founded ATC Coin LTD charging them with setting up a crypto asset scam.
Background
Back in October 2017, the local police were after Subhashchand Jewria, accusing him of receiving money from investors to let them buy the crypto token his company had issued — the ATC Coin. The founder of ATC Coin LTD used that money to buy real estate and moved the rest of the investment cash to his personal bank accounts.
Later on, after searching the company’s offices and the founder’s flats, the police arrested Jewria and his brother for conspiracy, cheating, and crime of professional misconduct.
Curiously, up to now, the authorities have failed to find any of the victim-investors to testify against the fraudster.
A foolproof crypto scamming method
Jewria reportedly convinced investors into buying his coins by promising that they would be able to trade them on exchanges after the coins are unlocked.
According to official reports, Jewria registered his company in the UK in spring 2017 so as to create his ATC Coin and at the same time was working in the area of fund management. As the investigation found out later, the platform for issuing the crypto tokens was only registered formally and existed ‘on paper’.
Local media reported that back then ATC Coin was offering a return of 10 percent after a yearly lock-in period. Investors were making lavish forecasts that returns would be as much as 24 percent in just one month. Besides, the fraudsters were promising that ATC Coins would be accepted by various online shops.
Time has passed, investigation in a dead-end
Despite all the efforts the local police force has applied to investigate the case, find the victims and punish the guilty parties, Indian media reports that it is too late now — the case went cold.
The police have failed to actually find those who invested their money in ATC Coin a year ago. Those who the police did manage to find and speak to never filed any legal complaint. The police allegedly believes that the real victims are scared to come forward with their evidence for the fear to be scrutinized heavily since the crypto asset area is a subject to the tight regulation of RBI in India and is considered a pretty much ‘grey area’.
Besides, the money confiscated from the arrested fraudster have not been returned to the investors since none of them have identified themselves to the police to claim it.
Arman Shirinyan
Alex Dovbnya
