Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra move Bombay HC challenging ED eviction notice in money laundering case

Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra moved the Bombay High Court on Wednesday against an ED notice that directed them to vacate two residences. The matter was posted for a hearing the next day after the court issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate.

“The petitioners are also seeking relief on humanitarian grounds as the premise in question is their residential premise in which they have been staying with their family of six members for almost two decades,” the petitions said.

Lawyers representing the couple said they had only received the eviction notices on October 3 and dubbed the missives ‘arbitrary and illegal’.

The actor and her businessman husband were issued a notice in late September asking them to vacate their residential premises in the Juhu area of Mumbai as well as a farmhouse in Pune within ten days. The money laundering case pertains to an alleged Bitcoin fraud.

Kundra was linked to the Bitcoin Ponzi scam in April this year as the ED attached assets worth ₹98 crore — including the aforementioned properties and equity shares — as part of a money laundering probe. The case pertains to alleged duping of investors through the use of crypto currency.

The scam first came to light after multiple former investors filed FIRs with the Maharashtra and Delhi Police. They had invested in the ‘Gain Bitcoin’ scheme a few years earlier with promoters assuring a 10% return per month in the form of bitcoins. FIRs were filed against a company called 'Variable Tech' and accused the promoters (also named in the FIR) of collecting ₹6,600 crore from the investors in 2017.

The existing investors were initially paid in the manner of a pyramid scheme — using money from new investors. The payments eventually stopped when the company failed to rope in new investors. They allegedly bought Bitcoins with the remaining money and hid them in obscure online wallets.

According to the ED, Kundra was given 285 Bitcoins from the mastermind and promoter of Gain Bitcoin Ponzi scam for setting up a Bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine. He allegedly remains in possession of the cryptocurrency — presently valued at more than ₹150 crore.

(With inputs from agencies)