The variety of arrests in a Rs. 40-crore cryptocurrency fraud in Nagpur by which over 2,000 buyers had been duped reached 11 on Sunday, a day after the primary accused, his spouse, and two associates had been held from Lonavala in Pune, police mentioned.

An official mentioned principal accused Nishid Wasnik used to flaunt his luxurious way of life to get folks to put money into a agency that he claimed was dealing in Ether cryptocurrency. Ether value in India stood at 2.17 lakhs as of 10am IST on February 21.

“He manipulated the web site of the agency to point out a gentle rise within the worth of investments, whereas transferring cash into his accounts fraudulently between 2017 and 2021. He had even organised a seminar on cryptocurrency funding in Panchmarhi in Madhya Pradesh,” the official mentioned.

Wasnik went into hiding in March final yr, leaving the buyers within the lurch, earlier than being arrested from Pune district on Saturday.

All 11, together with the seven arrested on Sunday, had been charged beneath IPC, Maharashtra Safety of Curiosity of Depositors Act and Data Know-how Act provisions by Yashodhara Nagar police, he mentioned.

Late final month, hackers took management of a number of YouTube channels that belonged to crypto-supporting influencers in addition to Indian exchanges, resembling CoinDCX, WazirX, and Unocoin. The hackers posted video directions asking folks to wire them cash in cryptocurrency. A pockets hyperlink was added by the hackers within the description part of the video.

The hackers are believed to have interrupted YouTube servers to abruptly play the video message on hijacked accounts. USD Coin, Binance, and Ether had been amongst cryptocurrencies they had been asking for, in change for a brand new, unfamiliar cryptocurrency referred to as OWCY.

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