New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday arrested a man who was taken into custody by the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) on May 30 for cheating more than 1,000 people on the pretext of making investment in a Russian oil company -- Rosneft.

"Ashish Malik, along with his accomplices Sunil Singh and Sandeep Kaushik, promised people of 20 per cent return per month on the pretext of making investment in Rosneft Hedge Fund and also launched two crypto coins named 'RHFCOIN' and 'RHFGOLD'. They, thus collected crores of funds from people all across India and laundered the same by investing the same in cryptocurrencies, largely Bitcoin. Subsequently, the accused and his accomplices siphoned off the funds thus collected. Proceeds of Crime (POC) in the subject matter is Rs 52 crore. However, further investigations are on to unearth the actual amount of POC," said an official.

PMLA Special Court Hyderabad granted the ED custody of Malik on September 8. In pursuant to the court order, Malik was then taken into ED custody on September 10 from the Tihar Jail, New Delhi, where he was currently lodged pursuant to his arrest by EOW, Delhi.

Further investigation in the matter is on.