The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Sandeep goes full steam ahead as Regulators discuss what to do
A total of 28 complaints has now been filed against Sandeep Rai Chamling of PandoraBiz with regard to his ‘SRC Mentorship Plans’ in the Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (CCAA). This is up from 4 complaints last week, and various issues as detailed in two investigative stories by The Bhutanese last week.
The complainants largely want their refunds of various amounts back for promised mentorship of earning crypto currency and trading which they say never materialized and so they lost their money.
The amount is around Nu 160,000 in membership fees paid by them.
The complaints
The Bhutanese talked to some of these complainants or victims.
A victim, Rinzin, said, “First he took Nu 2,777 and after that he did not teach anything he told he would teach us, and he also did not reply to our chats after we paid the money.”
Nidup said he has been scammed by PandoraBiz under the pretense of providing crypto trading mentorship.
Nidup stated, “I came across this person through social media, and also got calls from their office time and again. They offered a last time mentorship program in crypto trading and requested payment of Nu 6,262 before starting the session. However, after receiving the payment, instead of delivering the promised training or mentorship, the person verbally scolded and insulted me when I tried to seek guidance. No mentorship or educational service was ever provided.”
He further added, “I believe this person (Sandeep) is intentionally deceiving people through false promises of mentorship to scam money.”
Nidup has asked CCAA to investigate this matter and take necessary action against the individual involved, and to help him recover the amount he paid, and prevent further victims from being scammed by Sandeep.
Another victim, Karma said she deposited Nu 6,262 but she now wants a refund. She said she wants the refund because it is her hard earned money. She said Sandeep has even claimed he can teach illiterate people to trade in crpto currency.
She said, “Out of 800 mentees, forget about mentees of previous batches, we could only see 1 or 2 individuals who were making a profit.”
She added, “At first, he said we can trade with our simple smartphones but later he suggested us to buy King Kong tab from his stock for better trading view since the mobile is not quite comfortable.”
Karma said that Sandeep also never gave them the promised 10 USDT equivalent to USD 10.
Another victim, Wangdi, said he was in the July batch of this year and paid a sum of Nu 6,262 but he wants a full refund of the amount he paid.
“After the payment, he promised to guide with trading mentorship. I did not receive any of the services agreed upon. I tried to follow up several times, but there has been little to no response. Even if and when he responded, it would be harsh. This delay and lack of communication skills are both disappointing and unacceptable. In a nutshell, he misled me under the pretense of trading mentorship where he plays no role in guiding his mentees,” said Wangdi.
Sangay lost Nu 15,224 in total. He first paid Nu 2,700 to learn BTC before launching his App.
“He (Sandeep) said he will launch his App and will teach me about trading and so I paid Nu 6,262, but it got expired after 1 month, and so again, I was asked to pay and join his life time access member so I paid Nu 6,262 again hoping to learn but I got zero knowledge. Knowledge from YouTube is far better than in his video. He is doing it only for his benefit,” Sangay said.
Thinley was in the 12th batch for training free Bitcoin mining at FreeBitco.in and paid Nu 2,777 in the December 2023. During that time, there were more than 60 members for a training session.
“The trainings provided were all from YouTube which I knew later. I am sure all the members had never learnt anything from him as whenever a question was asked, he would scold us or send few videos meant for just a single view,” Thinley said.
Thinley said the main reason for the complaint is that if Sandeep is not stopped today, he will continue scamming innocent Bhutanese people.
Tshering said in 2024, she came across several of Sandeep’s videos on Facebook, where he and his team were showing how they earned large amounts of money through Bitcoin trading.
She said, “His videos looked very convincing and genuine, and since he was posting them openly on social media, I believed that his activities were officially permitted. After being inspired by his videos, I contacted him through Messenger to ask how to earn Bitcoin. He told me that if I really wanted to make money, I had to deposit Nu 2,777, after which he would teach me how to earn through trading. Trusting him, I made the deposit. However, I did not receive any real training or any profit in return.”
“Again, in January 2025, he contacted me and said that if I deposited Nu 6,262 for a lifetime access trading plan, he would give me 10 USDT before 18th February 2025 as a reward and also provide lifetime training. Believing him once again, I transferred the amount. But even after that, I have not earned a single cent or received proper training,” she added.
Tshering went on to say that Sandeep usually shares information and instructions through a WhatsApp group chat, but his explanations are very unclear and difficult to understand. She also tried to follow his live trading videos, but she couldn’t understand them at all as they were too complicated and didn’t help her learn or earn in any way.
“Now, it has been more than a year, and I have not received any benefit or proper service. When I asked him for a refund, he refused to return my money,” she said.
She called on the CCAA to investigate this matter and take necessary legal action against Sandeep for misleading the public with false investment promises and refusing to refund their money. She also requests CCAA’s support to help her recover her total deposited amount of Nu 9,039.
Wangchuk said though he lost Nu 2,777 to learn nothing, and instead got scolded during training. He said it is a small fee, but he should not be scamming people.
The Bhutanese talked to three more people who filed complaints and had similar stories but they did not want their names mentioned.
One of them paid Nu 6,262 and said Sandeep did not keep his promises and was harsh.
Another who lost Nu 2,777 said she paid for Bitcoin mining training but did not get training or support and her messages went unanswered.
A third person said he first deposited Nu 2,777 for trading but there was no knowledge and the second time Sandeep called again and asked for Nu 6,262 making assurances which was again not fulfilled. He said he wants his money back.
The CCAA said it is receiving the cases and investigating them. The CCAA was already investigating Sandeep based on an earlier complaint where they found Sandeep does not have a license and authorization from Bhutan Qualifications and Professional Certification Authority (BQPCA).
With the latest cases, CCAA is trying to get more details in terms of all the members and other data from Sandeep and has sent him some questions on this.
The CCAA may look at applying misleading representation under its regulations.
RBP investigation
Apart from the CCAA, the South Thimphu police is also investigating the criminal complaint made against Sandeep by the whistleblower Kezang Choden.
The police is reviewing the case and information and evidences. The police will investigate along the line of deceptive practices of false promises for money and also possibly online gambling through the FreeBitco.in link that Sandeep promoted, which is essentially a dubious crypto gambling website where Sandeep would get commission for referring people through his link and also get a cut of any money they spent on the site.
Apart from Kezang, an additional person who has also joined the police complaint is a Karma Sonam Yangsi. He said he saw an advertisement to buy a King Kong Tab on installments at the PandoraBiz Facebook page and as part of that had to download the PandoraBiz app to see the products.
However, he said before he knew it, Nu 6,262 had been deducted from his account and though he asked for a refund, he was refused it. He also asked for a product of an equivalent value and was denied the same. He was instead put in the mentorship group of Sandeep where he said he learnt nothing.
Regulators discuss
Around two weeks ago, a meeting was held with the CCAA, BQPCA, Royal Monetary Authority (RMA), Department of Trade and Department of Law and Order.
As per this meeting, action is to be taken by CCAA, BQPCA and RMA. The BQPCA is planning to call him soon and let Sandeep know he cannot carry out such classes as his course is not registered or authorized by BQPCA. If he does not stop after this soft touch then there maybe legal action.
The RMA’s 30th April 2025 notification says crypto mining and exchanges will only be allowed for Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) registered agencies and that ‘On-ramping for crypto trading through domestic banks regulated by the RMA will continue to be restricted.’
Sandeep has violated the above notification, but the RMA is yet to decide what kind of action it will take against Sandeep.
Sandeep has not only engaged in the above, but he has been selling USDT online and has launched a new crypto coin called PB Coin which he says is equal in value to the Ngultrum and whose supply is 100 billion.
The difficulty for RMA, in part, is because there are no specific crypto regulations and crypto regulator. This, in part, is also what has allowed Sandeep to fly under the radar for so long and get so many victims as his slick videos and posts on social media made him seem like a legitimate operation.
The RMA has broad powers under the Financial Services Act to take action against Sandeep for violating its notification, but the Central Bank wants to be sure it has all the legal provisions on its side before it takes action, if any.
The RMA is also waiting to see how effective the actions of CCAA and BQPCA are.
At the same time, there is a feeling within CCAA and BQPCA that RMA should in fact be taking the lead since it is primarily a financial matter and involves crypto which comes under the domain of RMA.
The Department of Law and Order said it will learn from the previous two articles published by The Bhutanese on the issue and use it in its future awareness and advocacy material.
Regulators make little impact on Sandeep
However, warning and even fines from the regulators are not making much of an impact on Sandeep.
In November 2023, the CCAA first came across PandoraBiz.com and referred the matter to the BQPCA which asked him to stop and in February 2024 issued a notification asking people to not undertake such trainings.
Sandeep, however, did not stop and when BQCPA caught him again, he was fined Nu 10,000 and was made to pay tax for the amount earned by him at the time. However, he still did not stop and continued and openly launched the ‘SRC Mentorship Plan’ openly advertising on social media under the noses of regulators.
One of the victims and complainants to CCAA, Wangchuk, asked, “I am still wondering why the government didn’t stop him doing Crypto related training since he was openly advertising his business on the Facebook. I feel the government should have warned him as he had already taken a huge sum of money from innocent people and even from illiterate people. The government has been silent till people complain. The government should have stopped him doing crypto related business if it is not legitimate in our country.”
The mountain of complaints, regulators and legal challenges heading Sandeep’s way has not deterred Sandeep who is functioning as usual as of Friday evening.
Instead, partly in a reaction to complaints of him not helping mentees, he has started guiding and encouraging his mentees via his App and WhatsApp to open an online trading account with FP Markets, an online global brokerage firm that offers trading services in crypto, forex, commodities, shares, etc. Sandeep has been asking people to register via his link as he claims he is recognized by the company and can help them if there are any issues.
However, Sandeep has not shared that he can earn referral bonuses for getting people registered on the platform. For example, if people going through Sandeep’s link deposit USD 500 and trade 2.5 lots then he will get a USD 50 bonus. The bonuses go up to USD 200 as the amounts and lots go up.
While FP Markets is a legitimate brokerage company, a review by coinbureau.com found that it does not have some important risk management tools. There are no guaranteed stops and negative balance protection.
Coinbureau.com says without guaranteed stops, the market could gap through your stop levels and without the negative balance protection, you could be sent into debt on a large market swing.
Sandeep has also been flaunting that he is a registered vendor with Binance and those who go through him can withdraw their crypto money in the form of Ngultrum from the bank, however, he will charge a fee of 2.5%.
This may sound quite incredible for those who don’t know, but it is nothing remarkable as there are many Binance registered vendors in Bhutan in hotels, shops, cafes and restaurants who have a QR code where tourists or even local can use cryptocurrency to buy things and the DK Bank in Bhutan converts that crypto into Ngultrums and deposits the money in the account of the vendor.
It is, however, controversial that Sandeep wants to charge a fee for this which only banks like DK Bank can do.
The Bhutanese asked Sandeep if he would like to respond to the complaints and new developments, but there was no response again.
