Altcoins

Crypto Celebrity Scam: India Arrests KashhCoin (KASHH) Mastermind

from Dollar Destruction 5 years ago 0 0 662

The suspect, Asif Ashraf Malkani, had been escaping justice for several months after stealing investors’ money.

New Delhi Police Crime Branch has detained Asif Ashraf Malkani, the leading figure behind the multi-million-dollar fraudulent scheme called KashhCoin (KASHH), local media reported over the weekend. Malkani has been on the lam for several months in various cities across the country after the crash of the project, which had become famous as many Bollywood celebrities backed the coin in a special gala.

Malkani police interrogation revealed that the 33-year old man had previous experience in financial scams. KashhCoin’s founder was part of Unetnet, a project for investing in franchising, which stole €50 million ($57.7 million) from around 22,000 investors across Europe in 2015. Moreover, recently, Malkani started a new cryptocurrency, called V-Fix, as part of a video project V-Tube, which offers “commercially viable video streaming website.” V-Tube site is still operational as of the time of writing.

Currently, Malkani operates the “Puneet Enterprise” company, which has a substantial amount of money in its bank account, according to the New Delhi Police.

KashhCoin

KashhCoin started in 2016, but the real promotion campaign began in 2017, especially after “a grand function held at a farmhouse in Chhatarpur” with the participation of many “Bollywood celebrities and models,” according to Times of India newspaper. At that time, the cryptocurrency peaked at $0.048, but later crashed to $0.00017, and the last price was $0.000068, according to Coin Market Cap data.

However, as the gala was very successful, Malkani and his team held several marketing events across India and Nepal, promising between 1%-2% daily return of investment (RIO). After they attracted millions of US dollars, the group stole the investors’ funds. The investigation began at the end of 2017 when one victim filed a complaint about a $20,000 loss, and many other investors followed the move. Several weeks later, the New Delhi Police detained one person from Malkani’s staff, and the investigation deepened as the arrested KASHH member gave important information about the project.