The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested three accused — Milan Garg, Sukhdev Thakur, and Abhishek Sharma — in connection with a ₹500 crore cryptocurrency fraud that allegedly duped more than 2.48 lakh investors across Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and other states. The arrests were made by the ED Shimla Sub-Zonal Office under Section 19(1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, officials confirmed on Friday, 17 July.

How the Fraud Operated

Investigators say the scheme was launched in 2018 by the alleged mastermind Subhash Sharma — who is currently absconding — in connivance with co-accused including Hem Raj, Milan Garg, Sukhdev Thakur, Abhishek Sharma, and others. The accused operated multiple fictitious investment platforms — Korvio, DGT, Hypenext, and A-Global — to lure the public with promises of assured high returns.

Investors were induced to purchase 'Korvio Coin (KRO)' through misleading promotional seminars, manipulated token valuations, and the introduction of new tokens to sustain what investigators describe as a classic Ponzi structure: funds from new investors were used to pay returns to earlier participants. The platform was subsequently migrated to foreign servers hosted on DigitalOcean and operated through domains including korvio.io and voscrow.com.

Scale of the Scam

Recovered digital evidence — despite attempts by the accused to delete records and domain data — revealed that more than 2.48 lakh users fell victim to the fraud. Total transactions exceeded $219 million, resulting in an estimated investor loss of ₹500 crore, according to the ED.

The ED initiated its investigation based on First Information Reports (FIRs) registered by police in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab against Subhash Sharma and other key conspirators.

Role of Each Accused

Milan Garg is identified as a principal mastermind and the technical architect behind the Korvio/Voscrow, Hypenext, and A-Global platforms. He allegedly developed and controlled these platforms, managed cryptocurrency wallets, supervised investor migration across platforms, routed funds, and facilitated the conversion of cash into cryptocurrencies.

Sukhdev Thakur and Abhishek Sharma were among the earliest promoters of the Korvio/Voscrow scheme. They allegedly mobilised investors through false assurances of high returns, collected substantial cash from investors, and delivered it to the Juneja family — namely Vijay Juneja and Masoom Juneja — and other co-conspirators on the directions of Subhash Sharma.

Both accused earned significant commissions and are alleged to have acquired beneficial interests in immovable properties derived from proceeds of crime — a 10 per cent beneficial interest for Sukhdev Thakur and a 5 per cent beneficial interest for Abhishek Sharma in Juneja Square, a property the ED says was acquired from proceeds of crime.

Custody and Prior Arrests

Since all three accused were already in judicial custody in the predicate offence, the ED filed a production application before the PMLA Court, Shimla. Pursuant to production warrants, all three were formally arrested and produced before the court, which granted the ED 12 days' custody for further investigation into the total quantum of proceeds of crime generated and laundered through the fraud.

Notably, the ED had earlier arrested Hem Raj and Masoom Juneja for money laundering in the same case. With these three fresh arrests, the net of accountability is widening — though the alleged mastermind Subhash Sharma remains at large.