Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Odisha police has arrested a person in connection with a Ponzi case, involving an online betting app.
The arrested has been identified as Jitendra Mallick (27) of Kabisuryanagar in Ganjam district. He was nabbed from Bengaluru on June 4.
The EOW said that the Mallick had allegedly duped over 800 investors in Ganjam district and lakhs other across India by promising them high returns on money invested in 18football.com. “Investors were promised of giving lucrative benefits like 3% daily compound return on investment, recharge bonus, referral bonus, extra bonus on the earnings of the downline members, salary bonus, daily withdrawal option etc,” it said.
The fraudsters allegedly collected crores of rupees from lakhs of investors across the nation. “They paid the promised return for a few days to the investors in the initial days but later stopped making and closed the app as the number of members increased,” it further stated.
The release said that Mallick was responsible for promotion and publicity of 18football.com in Ganjam and across Odisha as well. “He had enrolled several investors and also organised meetings in different hotels in Berhampur and Bhubaneswar. Photos/Videos of the promotional activities were found in the mobile phone and laptop seized from the accused. He was also providing referral link to the downline members and was in contact with the fraudsters at the helm of affairs. He was linked to Foreign National George Enzo, who was managing the 18football.com group in Whatsapp/Telegram,” it said.
Investigation revealed that Rs 21,05,836 was credited to his bank account. “The other accounts of the accused are under scrutiny. The scammers used multiple shell companies/ firms and their directors to route the ill-gotten money. They also used mule accounts for multi-layering of money transactions to confuse the law enforcement agencies.”
A total of Rs 1.25 crore lying in the incriminating accounts has been frozen.
Earlier, 4 persons were arrested in the case from West Bengal, Rajasthan and Kerala. They are still in judicial custody. “Similarly, a look out circular has been issued against Md Saif, Dubai-based operator/ promoter of this scam. The fraud by 18football.com has got all India ramifications, and the fraud amount involved is suspected to be more than Rs 1000 crore, out of which the EOW has been able to trace transactions of approximately Rs 446 crore,” it added.
