BitConnect's Indicted Founder Kumbhani Has Disappeared, SEC Says

BitConnect founder Satish Kumbhani, charged criminally in the U.S. last week with a $2.4 billion Ponzi scheme, has vanished from his native India, officials said. From a report: Last September, the Securities and Exchange Commission separately sued Kumbhani, claiming he fraudulently raised more than $2 billion from investors in his cryptocurrency exchange platform. But the SEC didn't know where he was and couldn't serve him with the lawsuit. The mystery deepened a bit Monday. Kumbhani, 36, "has likely relocated from India to an unknown address in a foreign country," SEC attorney Richard Primoff said in a court filing. "Since November, the commission has been consulting with that country's financial regulatory authorities in an attempt to locate Kumbhani's address. At present, however, Kumbhani's location remains unknown."

Go on take the money and run

[AndyKron]

Satish took the money and ran. Ah hoo ah!

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Does anyone know how much money he made out of this? I assume that the $2.4bn figure is the losses, not what he ended up holding.

If he has enough and he laundered it, he should be able to start a new life somewhere if he is careful.

Re:

[iggymanz]

does it even matter if he made off with five million or ten or more? He can live a fine life in most this world with that. Most here wouldn't mave five million in their corporate slave or grunt worker life.

Re:

[real_nickname]

with the advents of NFTs, it isn't tough to have an art gallery get a lot of anonymous purchases, and once that money is paid, it is pretty much free and clear.

So simple but every week some crypto bandit get busted. Maybe it is not so simple. Law enforcement have so much onchain data to analyse, I won't bet my life on some random laundering scheme.

Re:

[iggymanz]

pfft, can do that at the few millions level and many have. You can live in 3rd world country that has nice home, good doctor and hospital for those with money, internet and whatever money can buy for food and entertainment.

Probably somewhere in Ukraine

[jfdavis668]

No one would look for him there.

Re: Isn't bitcoin immune to this?

[diffract]

This story is about Bitconnect, not Bitcoin

Re:

[Rayfield k.]

You're the only person to mention Bitcoin here.

When they find him

[feraudy]

They will say "Hey, hey hey!"

Probably went to Russia

[C_Kode]

He probably went to Russia with his bitcoin to pay for safe harbor under Putin.

How much did he cash out?

[Ecuador]

If he managed to cash out a good chunk of that $2+ billion, good luck finding him... He can buy off a small dictatorship and hide there, his own army, etc.

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

I worked at a place once that was finishing up a big building project. It turned out the guy in charge stole a couple billion and disappeared somewhere in Central America.

Eventually his wife got tired of life in the jungle and came back. The cops met her at the airport, arrested her, and told her husband they'd toss her in jail unless he came back. He did.

A friend of mine worked for another company that turned out to be a bit of a scam. The guy in charge skipped out with a few hundred million before the inv

Re:

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Central America is a stupid place to hide for a billionaire

This guy is from large trading communities of India. Trust based commerce. Nothing is written down, no body break their word, a spoken contract in the presence of two witnesses will be carried out no matter what, even if it costs one party his (its almost entirely male, except for the deity they worship Lakshmi) entire fortune. No body goes bankrupt, the community will chip in and give enough seed capital to come back. Such societies exist in man

Re:

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Thinking back it is even possible this identity Satish Ghumbani itself could be fake. You don't commit fraud in your real identity. Create a fake one, a burner identity for each crime. This is covered in Intro Criminality 101.

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

Uh huh. While he's at it, why doesn't he just join the Illuminati, then Queen Elizabeth will protect him AND he'll get to see the ark of the covenant!

Re:

[UnknowingFool]

I am not sure he got $2B because the assets of the company were seized. Not sure if the government got all the assets though. From what I understand, he might have at least $24M. I doubt that he cashed out all $2B so that it could not be traced back to him. The couple that is charged with stealing or laundering $4.5B could not move much of it as it was being watched. What they were able to move got traced back to them.

Re:

[slazzy]

Word on the street is he bought 200 million worth of bitcoin mining hardware and sold it for cash...

For a fraction of that

[Virtucon]

For a fraction of $2.4b, you could live comfortably in many nations for the rest of your life. Shit, Whitey Bulger evaded US authorities in the US for 16 years with 19 murder charges pending.

Re:

[bn-7bc]

Unfortunately he ovoided a terrorism charge or the cia/0 and /or nsa would probably have tracked him down, more resources to hunt terrorists etc

He's showing off a new NFT...

[Bob_Who]

N.ot F.ucking T.elling where he went with all of that coin.

Kumbhani's location [of] remains unknown

[kriston]

That's a prescient term of phrase.

Clearly a success!

[gweihir]

I mean the guy successfully did the only thing crypto-"currencies" are good for: Scam a lot of people and then take the money and run. Now he needs to hide long-term. If he is not stupid and keeps his greed under control, he should be able to do that nicely.