Bitten Deep

It remains to be seen if the investors of the Pune bitcoin scam stand any chance to get their money back

- Dnyanesh Jathar

Nisha Raisoni first met Akash Sancheti as a prospective match for a relative’s daughter. But what Sancheti talked to her the most that day was about bitcoins. “He spoke passionately and convincingly,” said Raisoni, 46, a Pune based entrepreneur. “In the end, he did not impress me as prospective groom, but I liked his business.”

She liked it so much that she agreed to invest ₹1 lakh in Sancheti’s bitcoin business, Cloud Miners. And, by the end of August 2017, she had invested ₹13 lakh. “He had promised me 1.8 bitcoins for the investment in one bitcoin over a period of 18 months. He also told me that if I reinvested my monthly payouts, he would give me six bitcoins at the end of 18 months. I found the deal very lucrative,” said Raisoni.

She had full faith in him. “In November, he downloaded the CoinBank app on my phone, and told me that I could keep a track of my investments on it,” she said. “He even told me that if I brought more investors he would pay me ₹25 lakh a month. But, he never shared the user ID and password with me. As I started keeping track of my money, I realised that I was receiving MCAP, another cryptocurrency, not bitcoins.”

When she took it up with Sancheti, he told her that the company GainBitcoin, in which his Cloud Miners was a partner, had changed its policies, and the payouts would be as MCAP. “I was angry and upset, and I told him that I wanted my investment back at any cost. I kept asking, but he told me he did not have any money. He even stopped replying to my calls and messages,” she said.