Bhubaneswar: A court in Odisha’s Balasore on Wednesday sentenced Nilesh Kumar Kar, accused of committing a fraud of Rs 1.13 crore in the name of crypto investment, to rigorous imprisonment for seven years.
The OPID Court in Balasore held Kar guilty U/s 420/467/468/471 IPC, r/w Sec.66 (C) & (D) of IT Act, and pronounced the jail term in the case registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW). The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2.35 lakh. On default of paying the fine amount, he will undergo further imprisonment of two years.
The case was registered on April 5, 2023 and subsequently charge sheet submitted against the accused who was arrested on April 6, 2023 from Balasore, keeping the investigation of the case open against the other accused persons.
The case was registered on the allegation of Mahamanya Jena of Sahadebkhunta, Balasore against Kar, for inducing him to invest in an App/website namely ‘Cloud-Fut’ for earning extra money. Being induced by him, the informant invested Rs 2,13,038/- by depositing the same in between January to March, 2023. When he was supposed to get Rs 50,57,117/- on his invested amount, as shown in the wallet of ‘Cloud-Fut’, suddenly the website stopped functioning and the informant could not withdraw the amount.
The ‘Cloud-Fut’ website is a fake website developed for mining of crypto currency. One has to invest the minimum amount of Rs 665/- to be a member so that to get the return of Rs.1487.25 after 37 days. An investor, was assured of earning about Rs.40/- daily on the invested amount. After becoming a member, one used to get Rs.1.75 Paisa daily basis for login.
The convict Nilesh Kar, being the leader of the fake website for Balasore Dist. has induced more than 400 persons of Odisha including the informant to be the member of the website. In order to create faith, the convict showed the fake authorization letter from RBI and also the appointment letter of ‘Cloud-Fut’ as Dist. leader to the investors. After collecting crores of rupees, suddenly the wallet and the website were closed throwing the investors into despair. Thus, the convict along with other accused persons cheated the investors of Odisha only of Rs 1.13 crore.
As found on investigation, the fake website ‘Cloud-Fut’ having all India ramification was being used to cheat the investors nationwide in the name of Crypto investment. However, actually online Ponzi scam was being run under the garb of crypto investment.
