The nephew of Shailesh Bubulal Bhatt has been arrested.

Indian authorities allege Nikunj Bhatt received 260 bitcoin of the 2091 bitcoin Shailesh extorted.

To recap, BitConnect was an MLM crypto Ponzi scheme run by Satish Kumbhani.

After BitConnect collapsed in 2018, Shailesh Bhatt (right) hatched an extortion scheme to get his money back. The targets were two of Kumbhani’s employees, netting Bhatt 2,091 Bitcoins, 11,000 LiteCoins and Rs 14.50 crore.

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

Bhatt was arrested in August 2024 and remains in custody. As reported by the Press Trust of India (PTI) on January 20th;

Nikunj Bhatt and Sanjay Kotadiya were produced before a special PMLA court after they were arrested. The court remanded them to the ED’s custody till January 24, said their lawyer Aniq Shaikh.

The ED stated that Nikunj Bhatt’s custodial interrogation is necessary as he still possesses knowledge of cryptocurrency wallet credentials, private keys and exchange accounts.

Nikunj Bhatt, a nephew of the main accused, Shailesh Bhatt, had attended meetings where the kidnapping-extortion conspiracy was allegedly planned.

The ED stated that Nikunj had also accompanied Shailesh Bhatt during extortion and later received a portion of the cryptocurrency proceeds.

As per statements recorded under Section 50 of the PMLA, Nikunj Bhatt admitted to receiving 260 Bitcoins from Shailesh Bhatt.

Of these, he transferred 19.99 Bitcoins to his Binance wallet and returned 240 Bitcoins to Shailesh Bhatt within a few days.

Out of the Bitcoins transferred to the Binance account, 10.92 Bitcoins were seized earlier by the Surat Crime Branch, while the remaining amount was allegedly lost in trading activity on the exchange.

The investigating agency has not provided details regarding Kotadiya.

In a nutshell, Nikunj helped Shailesh Bhatt launder money extorted from BitConnect employees. Sanjay Kotadiva is likely an accomplice.

BitConnect defrauded consumers out of at least $2.4 billion. Satish Kumbhani (right) fled prior to BitConnect’s collapse.

Kumbhani is wanted by both Indian and US authorities and remains at large.