MD of cryptocurrency platform CoinZx, associates booked in Mumbai for cheating investors | Mumbai News

According to the police, people across the country have been duped by the company.

The complaint in Mumbai was lodged as the investors panicked after learning that Mahaseth had fled to Dubai. The complainant, a 50-year-old businessman from Borivali who runs a tour and travel company, said he learnt about the investment firm through his friend. He was allegedly told that if he invested money in the Coin ZX cryptocurrency scheme, he would receive substantial returns.

“The owner stays in Malad and has provided 5 per cent to 20 per cent profit per month to me and thousands of other investors in various schemes,” a friend allegedly told the complainant, he told the police.

Mahaseth allegedly ran other investment companies like FX & Smart Bull, Smart X, and Samruddhi Multi Trade Pvt Ltd and many people invested money in his schemes.

According to the complainant, after a series of meetings, he and other investors were persuaded to invest large sums of cash in Coin ZX, which was projected to become “India’s Bitcoin”. The company allegedly presented the project as a high-return opportunity and to gain investors’ trust, pointed out that the schemes were backed by Mahaseth’s large forex trading business.

According to a police officer who is a part of the investigation, there was a red flag that the investors ignored: the fraudsters only accepted money in cash. “When the complainant raised the issue with Mahaseth, he allegedly told him that they were accepting only cash because digital currency transactions are not yet established in India,” the officer said.

Police officials said that the company had a bogus website and would provide a login ID and password to investors to access it. “The victims were told that they could view all the details of their investment and the Coin ZX coins they received by logging into the company’s website. Furthermore, Mahaseth explained his Coin ZX digital currency project and how investing in his coin would yield significant profits,” an officer said.

“The owner even drew a parallel with Bitcoin, gaining investors’ trust by claiming that the current value of his company’s digital currency was only Rs 4, but in the next 20 months, the value of this coin would reach Rs 1,600. The growth of Coin ZX would be similar to Bitcoin, whose initial price was only Rs 6, but it has now reached lakhs,” the officer explained.

Subsequently, the complainant said he invested Rs 24 lakh. His three friends invested Rs 10 lakh, Rs 20 lakh, and Rs 8 lakh, respectively.

Later, when the complainant and his friends learned that Mahaseth was in a legal battle over Coin ZX, they allegedly contacted him in March 2023 but he reassured them that their money was safe and that it would be returned with profit after the specified period.

“The victims also learnt about a case being registered against Mahaseth and his company in Thane, following which they approached him again, asking him to return the money. The accused then claimed that the Coin ZX digital currency company had suffered a major financial loss, so they would have to wait for 20 months,” the police officer said.

After 20 months, at the end of 2024, when they contacted him again, Mahaseth allegedly kept postponing the date for repayment. They then discovered that he had closed his Mumbai office and fled to Dubai.

“Mahaseth stopped answering our calls and messages, following which we probed further to get more details on him. We discovered that he had defrauded us and many others of approximately Rs 200 crore. It also came to light that a case has been registered against Mahaseth and his associates in Hyderabad,” the complainant told the police.

The businessman then approached the Kasturba Marg police station and lodged a complaint, after which a case was registered against Mahaseth and five of his associates under relevant sections of cheating and common intention.