The founder of the Morris Coin cryptocurrency has been arrested in India, over allegations the crypto project was a scam to defraud unsuspecting investors out of their capital.
District police detained a 36-year-old man, known as Nishad, from the Malappuram district of Kerala, charging him with offences under the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, local media reported.
Evidence was seized from Nishad’s home, including documents indicative of a fraud spanning thousands of investors across the country. According to reports, Nishad is accused of defrauding hundreds of thousands of dollars from his victims, through soliciting investments in his Morris Coin digital currency.
Investors were lured with the promise of guaranteed returns of 270 rupees per day for 300 days for a minimum deposit of 15,000 rupees, or $200. The returns would represent a daily payout equivalent to approximately $3.60.
After the 300-day period, investors were told they could exchange their tokens, and that there were opportunities to earn more rewards for introducing new investors to the scheme.
However, Morris Coin was found to have no exchange listings, meaning it was not possible to exchange tokens after the lock-up period of the investment. Further, it was found that the company behind Morris Coin had no offices, and the ICO website offers no information about the founders, the developers or the aims of the project.
Police have said they will now be reaching out to investors caught up in the scam to collect evidence, with a view to taking written statements from those impacted by the fraud.
Nishad maintains Morris Coin operated within the law at all times, and met all compliance requirements for promoting its ICO, according to reports.
With investigations ongoing, the case is the latest cautionary tale for would-be digital currency investors.
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