Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested two persons, one from Sundargarh district and the other from Rajasthan’s Anupgarh, for duping gullible crypto investors to the tune of Rs 15 crores in Odisha and Maharashtra.
The accused persons have been identified as Sudhir Patel from Sundargarh, who was arrested today and Ved Prakash from Anupgarh in Rajasthan, on 10th of April. EOW PS Case No.28 dt.07.12.2023 U/s 420/467/468/471/120-B IPC r/w Sec.66 (D) of IT Act, Sec.4/5/6 of PCMCS Act & Sec.6 of OPID Act.
“After arrest, the accused, Ved Prakash was produced before the Court of ACJM, Anupgarh, Rajasthan, and was brought on transit remand to Bhubaneswar. Both the accused persons are going to be produced before the Hon’ble Designated Court under OPID Act, Cuttack today,” the EOW said.
The case was registered on the allegation of Pram Sagar Khamari against the arrested accused persons Ved Prakash and Sudhir Patel and others for duping many investors like him mainly in Western Odisha of more than Rs.14 Cr. in the name of investment with different Crypto through the agencies like ENG Crypto, Entice Capital, USDT Club, ADS Exchange, CRIT 11 etc.
The accused persons were inducing the investors for hefty returns on low investment. The informant being induced by the accused persons invested Rs.48,02,200 and had received the meagre return of Rs.20,000 only.
The arrested accused Ved Prakash, having his qualification of +2 Arts (not completed), was formerly working as a Constable in Rajasthan Police and was removed after 05 years of service for his misconduct and dereliction of duty. He was defrauding the investors by mentioning him as the Country Head of the crypto investment whereas another accused Sudhir Patel was the State Head of Odisha. Both the accused have been hiding since long after the registration of the case. However, a team of EOW was tracking them. Ved Prakash was arrested at Anupgarh with the help of Rajasthan Police.
The arrested persons in connivance with others during the year 2022 held extensive promotional activities in different parts of Odisha by organizing meetings for investment in cryptocurrency to get high returns and even double the invested amount within a very short period. They were inducing the investors to arrange more and more new investors in the scheme to get the extra benefits.
To attract investors, the accused persons prepared and used false documents like brochures and schemes, promising high rates of interest proportionately to the quantum of investment.
To win the confidence of the investors, initially, for very few months, they paid very small amounts as returns, and after a collection of crores of rupees, they stopped paying any return and absconded. In reality, the fraudsters were running an illegal Ponzi scheme and the up-line members were being paid the promised returns from the amount collected from the downline members.
They were collecting deposits from the general public either through the bank account or by cash.
As found, they were targeting not-so-educated persons lacking computer knowledge. They were taking advantage of the computer illiteracy of the investors and asking them to transfer the money directly to the accounts managed/run by them.
As revealed during the investigation so far, the fraudsters have collected the money by giving the false impression to invest the same with crypto whereas not a single amount has been deposited towards crypto investment. They were simply defrauding the investors by taking the name of different crypto coins and agencies.
The fraudsters, as found have cheated around 500 investors mainly from the places like Puri, Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Sundargarh and Bargarh Districts of Odisha of more than Rs.15 Cr.
The fraudsters in a similar fashion have also cheated the investors of Maharashtra. However, the amount cheated in Maharashtra is not known yet. EOW Odisha would write and alert the Maharashtra Police about this scam and scammers.
Many incriminating documents have been seized from the arrested accused persons. The investigation of the case is on. The other victims can approach EOW Odisha on Toll free No.18003457103.
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