The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has conducted search operations across seven locations after registering a case of a Rs 350 crore crypto-ponzi scam against seven individuals, officials said on Friday.

The accused were allegedly running seven separate modules based in the cities of Delhi, Hazaribag, Bathinda, Ratlam, Valsad, Pudukkottai, and Chittorgarh, collecting money from gullible investors by promising returns from cryptocurrency investments, they said. “These ponzi schemes were being promoted through multiple social media groups. An analysis of bank account transactions and cryptocurrency wallets has revealed that the illegal proceeds from these schemes were being converted into cryptocurrencies to obscure their origin,” CBI’s spokesperson said in a statement. It is alleged that the accused conducted transactions totaling over Rs 350 crore in these schemes, the officials said.

On Thursday, the agency carried out operations in Delhi, Jharkhand, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Rajasthan.

During the searches, the CBI seized digital virtual assets totaling approximately USD 38,414 in the cryptocurrency wallets of the accused, which have been digitally secured for investigation.

“The searches resulted in the recovery of cash amounting to Rs 34.2 lakh (approx), along with significant digital evidence, including seven mobile phones, one laptop, one tablet, three hard disks, 10 pen drives, memory cards, SIM cards, ATM cards, debit cards, email accounts, and several incriminating documents,” the statement said.

The agency registered the case under Indian Penal Code Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), Section 420 (cheating), and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000, as part of an ongoing investigation that predates the introduction of three new criminal laws last year.

“It is alleged that the accused, acting in criminal conspiracy, have been actively floating various ponzi and fraudulent schemes, promising high returns based on cryptocurrency investments. They are also accused of promoting, promising, and disseminating false and deceptive information to entice investors into these unregulated deposit schemes, which operate without requisite approvals from regulatory authorities such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI),” the statement said.

The probe has uncovered multiple bank accounts and Virtual Digital Asset (VDA) wallets with cryptocurrency exchanges, including CoinDCX, WazirX, Zebpay, and BitBns, held by the accused.

“Over two years, these accounts and wallets witnessed transactions exceeding Rs 350 crore. The victims were allegedly defrauded by the accused under various pretenses, such as online loans, online lucky orders, UPI frauds, and internet banking scams,” the CBI said.

Last year, the CBI uncovered a cyber-enabled fraud syndicate originating in Delhi-NCR, which allegedly defrauded foreign nationals from the US, Canada, and other countries to the tune of Rs 260 crore through a fake call center.

The syndicate, led by accused Tushar Kharbanda, a Noida resident, employed advanced techniques to commit cybercrime and launder money by converting bitcoin into US dollars and vice versa. The agency filed a chargesheet against three accused-Kharbanda, Gaurav Malik, and Ankit Jain-under various sections of the IPC and the Information Technology Act.

“The accused were involved in running a fraudulent call center in Delhi and Noida that targeted elderly citizens in the US and Canada,” the CBI said.

The CBI had also filed a case last year against late Amit Bhardwaj and his brother Ajay Bhardwaj for running an alleged Ponzi scheme involving bitcoins worth up to Rs 6,600 crore in 2017. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier taken up the investigation into the money laundering angle after the police in Maharashtra and Delhi filed first information reports (FIRs) against Variable Tech Pvt Ltd and individuals Amit Bhardwaj, Ajay Bhardwaj, Vivek Bhardwaj, Simpy Bhardwaj, and Mahender Bhardwaj-all members of the same family.

The FIRs also named several multi-level marketing agents who were alleged to have collected a massive amount of money in the form of bitcoins (worth Rs 6,600 crore in 2017) from the public, with the “false promise” of a 10 percent monthly return in bitcoins.