Raipur: Cryptocurrency trading wallet accounts registered in the name of three Chinese nationals, containing Rs 4 crore, were frozen by cryptocurrency exchange Binance, following a request by the police in Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon district in connection with a fraud, an official said on Friday.
The action was taken based on a complaint lodged by one Dr Abhishek Pal, a resident of Rajnandgaon, who alleged that he had lost Rs 81 lakh after a Chinese woman lured him into investing in a cryptocurrency scheme by promising him three-fold returns, the official said.
The preliminary investigation revealed that the complainant had fallen prey to Chinese-origin ‘Sha Zhu Pan’, which translates to a pig butchering scam aka romance scam, under which fraudsters spend months cultivating a relationship with their targets before convincing them to invest in bogus investment schemes, said Santosh Singh, Rajnandgaon Superintendent of Police told PTI.
A police team led by city superintendent of police (CSP) Gaurav Rai was tasked with investigating the case, he added.
“Pal had gotten acquainted with a person named Ana Li from Hong Kong on a social networking site. On her recommendation, he had invested $35,000, approximately Rs 26 lakh, in a trading app. Later the money grew to $107,825. The victim could not withdraw the money even after depositing taxes…
