Sunny Leone, Shilpa Shetty, Zareen Khan, Prachi Desai, Karishma Tanna, Other Bollywood Actresses’ Names Crop up in Bitcoin Scam

During the questioning, it was revealed that Shilpa Shetty, Huma Qureshi and Nargis Fakhri promoted Bharadwaj's company in Dubai and Singapore.

Mumbai, Jun 5: Bollywood actress Sunny Leone, Zareen Khan, Prachi Desai, Karishma Tanna, Huma Qureshi, Shilpa Shetty Kundra and others’ names cropped up during questioning of businessman Raj Kundra by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday in connection with a money-laundering probe related to a bitcoin transactions scam. The ED will summon these Bollywood stars soon.

Raj Kundra was summoned at the ED office here and was asked questions about his involvement in the trade, termed as illegal by the government. There are some instances of the case that are linked to Kundra and hence, he has been asked to record his statement, the officials said without elaborating, ED officials said. Kundra’s name turned up in the report following alleged links with Bitcoin scamster Amit Bhardwaj.

According to media reports, Bhardwaj had started the country’s first online marketplace which accepted bitcoins and had also started bitcoin mining start-ups. He reportedly lured in investors with promises of hefty returns, assuring the investors of access to the bitcoin mining system that would let them mine their own bitcoins. Kundra had allegedly promoted one of Bhardwaj’s operations.

During the questioning, it was revealed that Shilpa Shetty, Huma Qureshi and Nargis Fakhri promoted Bharadwaj’s company in Dubai and Singapore. Sunny Leone, Zareen Khan, Prachi Desai, Karishma Tanna and some other actresses met people running Bitcoin in Dubai and invited people to invest in it.