A man who extorted around $146 million from BitConnect scammers has been arrested in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Shailesh Bubulal Bhatt was a BitConnect investor who invested $293,000 into the scam.

To avoid taking a loss when BitConnect collapsed in early 2018, Bhatt (right) took matters into his own hands.

As per criminal charges filed against Bhatt under India’s Prevention of Money Laundering Act;

[Bhatt]  kidnapped two of Kumbhani’s employees and extorted 2,091 Bitcoins, 11,000 LiteCoins and Rs 14.50 crore in cash to release them.

“Kumbhani” refers to BitConnect’s founder, Satish Kumbhani (right).

After paying off his accomplices to the tune of ~$34.4 million, Bhatt spent the extortion proceeds on real-estate, gold and “other assets”.

Back in 2018 Bhatt filed a criminal complaint of his own, alleging Amreli police officers had kidnapped and extorted $1.3 million out of him.

Bhatt was arrested on August 13th and after being presented before court, was remanded to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate.

Satish Kumbhani has been arrested twice by Indian authorities but both times was released on bail.

After being released, Kumbhani promptly fled the country. Following his second 2019 arrest, Kumbhani is believed to have again fled to Dubai.

Kumbhani remains wanted by Indian authorities. He has also been indicted in the US and has an open arrest warrant out on him.