Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch has arrested the main accused and director of a ponzi firm from Uttar Pradesh for duping investors to the tune of Rs 1.5 crore.
The EOW made the arrest following investigation into the allegation against Prince Kumar, Director of Digital Revolution Technologies Limited. Kumar, who belongs to Muzaffarpur in Bihar was arrested from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh. He was produced before the CJM Court in Mathura and is being brought to Odisha.
The investigation revealed that Kumar and his company had duped hundreds of investors from across Odisha giving false assurances of high returns under its different schemes involving various digital/online products. They also issued forged document and misappropriated the invested amount of around Rs 1.5 crore from March 2020.
However the duped money may be higher as this company has investors spread in other states including Maharashtra, Bihar, UP, Delhi, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh.
The company collected the money from investors by misleading them that the company was running successful Indian version of Whatsapp, YouTube, Amazon, email, online/digital gaming, digital payment, Netflix etc. kind of products. The company named those as following:
1. Shopsubkuch- Ecommerce Website.
2. MYPay- mobile payment platform.
3. MyTube world- App for watching movies etc.
4. Vidscop- video sharing App.
5. Chitthi- sharing messages/ chat. Voice call/ video call etc.
6. GoGame11- Online gaming
In March, 2020, Kumar held meetings at Balasore and Bhadrak, distributed brochures and made wide propaganda to convince the gullible investors that his company wish to strengthen India through digital platforms and information technology. He gave false assurances to the investors that investment amount would double within one year. People, who were had income related issues during COVID at the time, invested their money in lure of huge and fast returns.
“The deposit collected by the company under the cover of direct digital marketing is nothing but ponzi scheme. The business model of Digital Revolution Technologies Limited is a simple pyramid structure in which the early entrants earn money and as the number of investors/depositors increases, finding more investors to join becomes difficult or impossible and the scheme collapses at a point of time. Investors, those who joined late do not earn enough to cover their first outlay,” stated a release of EOW.
