A 60-year-old man, Umesh Verma, has been arrested from the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Thursday. He returned from Dubai on charges of victimizing at least 45 people to the tune of Rs 2.5 crore in a cryptocurrency scam. The defendant and his son, Bharat, persuaded innocent people to fund a scheme (Pluto Exchange) in 2017. Verma, a greeting card manufacturer by profession, hosted his website and launched an app known as “Pluto Exchange”. The app promoted the sales and purchases of their recently launched cryptocurrency Coin Zarus.
The 60-year-old man promised 20-30% returns monthly via investment in Pluto Exchange.
The police had received many complaints from people about the accused. The victims alleged that Umesh Verma and his son, Bharat Verma, and others, had influenced them to fund the crypto scheme being performed by them under the banner of “Pluto Exchange.” Moreover, Verma supposedly comforted the victims that they would receive returns between 20%-30% per month on their investment.
However, Verma failed to materialize the promised returns. He condemned Bitcoin’s plunge as the cause of not paying out the rewards as promised. Furthermore, to complicate the matter, Verma changed his residential addresses frequently to evade the victims and ultimately relocated to Dubai. Police investigations recognize Verma as the sole owner of Pluto Exchange. The police state that they arrested Verma after extensive interrogation as he declined to defend his crypto business plan. Moreover, the police have remanded the accused for three days for interrogation.
Umesh Verma opened his office in New Delhi, India.
According to the Police investigations, Verma opened his office in Nov. 2017. The office was at Connaught place, New Delhi, and operated the business enterprise like a chit fund scheme. Pluto Exchange also claimed to be included in crypto trading and mining through ‘F2poolminin.’ Moreover, the scheme utilized the multi-level-marketing form, also urging investors to inject more people for higher reward.
The police also informed that in December 2017, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence had arrested Verma for engagement in a gold smuggling case. According to local reports, Verma also started the first mobile app for crypto in India with claims that users can purchase, trade, and stock BTC solely through their phone number.
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