Samtse Crossmarket Scam

How more than 200 Bhutanese in one district lost their savings to a Dubai-run forex Ponzi

In March 2026, Kuensel reported that a suspected online investment scam had duped over two hundred people in Samtse. The scheme was known locally as Samtse Crossmarket. What the initial reporting in Bhutan did not make explicit is that Crossmarket was not a Bhutan-grown scheme at all. It was one local face of an international operation that had already been documented by Indian law enforcement.

How it started

Crossmarket entered Bhutan the way most of these schemes do, through WhatsApp groups, social media, and personal introductions. Promoters offered guaranteed monthly returns from what they described as professional forex and crypto trading. Early participants were shown screenshots of profits and, in some cases, received small initial payouts. That visible proof was used to recruit the next layer of investors. The recruitment moved outward through family ties, work colleagues, and village networks until the participant count exceeded two hundred in a single dzongkhag.

In April 2026, Goa police in India filed a case against a Dubai-based operator named Lavish Chaudhary, also known as Nawab Ali, for running a network of fraudulent investment schemes. Among the platforms named in those Goa filings: Botbro, QFX Trade Ltd, Yorker Capital Markets, Botalpha, Crossmarkets, and Minecryptos. The same operator. The same playbook. Different names in different regions.

The Enforcement Directorate of India has frozen approximately Rs 170 crore in bank balances and attached forty-five properties linked to Chaudhary's network. Interpol has issued a Red Corner Notice against him. He remains based in the UAE.

What to watch for next time

The Samtse Crossmarket case is a clean example of a scheme that succeeded not because it was sophisticated but because it arrived through trusted channels before the warning did. Three specific things would have flagged it.

First, the platform name was new but the operating company was not registered anywhere in Bhutan, and a basic search would have surfaced the related names (Botbro, QFX, Botalpha) already under active criminal investigation in India. When a platform's name appears in foreign police filings before it appears on any regulator's approved list, that is the only verification needed.

Second, the entry point was a WhatsApp or social media contact rather than any formal financial institution. No bank, no licensed broker, no domestic exchange routes its clients through informal chat groups. If the introduction to an investment opportunity is happening on a messaging app, the investment is not regulated.

Third, the recruitment depended on a personal vouch. Someone you know brought you in. That is the most common feature of every scheme described in this series, and it is the one that disarms people most reliably. A trusted introduction does not transfer credibility from the introducer to the platform. The colleague who recommended Crossmarket was, in most cases, also a victim, just one who got in earlier.

A note for those already affected

If you sent money to Crossmarket or to any of the related platforms (Botbro, Botalpha, QFX, YFX, Yorker FX, TLC Coin, Minecrypto) you are not alone, and your case is part of a larger international investigation. Bhutanese authorities can be approached through the Royal Bhutan Police and the Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority. Cross-border recovery is difficult and slow, but documentation of every transaction, every chat record, and every promoter contact strengthens the eventual case substantially.

Sources: Kuensel, O Heraldo, Free Press Journal, Enforcement Directorate of India, Business Standard.