Odisha EOW Arrests India Head Of Chinese National-Run Ponzi Scam

Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch has arrested the India head of a Bengaluru-based mega online Chinese earning app from Tamil Nadu, an official release said on Thursday.

The arrested has been identified as S Chitravel (31). He was nabbed from Aviyur near Madurai on August 14 and produced before OPID Court Cuttack on August 16, which allowed EOW to take him on 5-day remand.

The case is related to the pan-India online Ponzi scam involving fraud and siphoning of thousands of crores rupees out of India using a complex network of mule bank accounts, shell companies/firms and crypto-traders. Last month, the Bureau of Immigration (BOI) under the Union Home Ministry (MHA) had issued a look-out circular (LOC) against a Chinese national and main accused, Guanhua Wang.

In 2019, he along with two other Chinese nationals, a male and a female, formed 3 shell companies in Bengaluru to run different cyber-financial scams. Chitravel was made the director of Bettec Technologies Private Limited in Bengaluru’s Dickenson Road.

“Wang visited India six times in 2019 and 2020 and mainly travelled to Bangaluru. After that, he has been running this scam from China with the help of many India-based associates, who look after managing mule bank accounts, shell companies and Crypto-traders, Whatsapp/Telegram group tutors/administrators and also running Ads using the morphed photos of celebrities,” inspector general of Crime Branch of Odisha Police JN Pankaj had then said.

Chitravel and some others were hired directors and facilitators. Chitravel used to get Rs 1 lakh a month to run the illegal scam in India. “Chitravel used to supervise/manage the gang who used to threaten/ abuse and send the morphed porn pictures of loan victims and their family members/ friends/contacts.”

After some people allegedly committed suicide having got trapped in loan apps, law enforcement agencies started crackdown against them and the government also banned many such apps. Following which, the fraudsters started running earning apps with a promise of doubling/ tripling money in a very short time. They used morphed photos of celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, Sachin Tendukar, Technical Guruji ( famous YouTuber) and Urfi Javed to lure people.

To avoid action, they developed a software/apps in China but got it registered/uploaded from India so that it can be masked as an Indian product/app. “Money is being siphoned out of India in thousands of crores to China through these scams. They generally use multiple layers of mule bank accounts at lower level, followed by current bank accounts of shell companies/ hired firms and finally, crypto traders and some dubious export-import firms to siphon money out of India.”

In some cases, small amount have also been withdrawn in cash in Dubai. The EOW, in this case, has till date frozen more than Rs.2.66 crore in various bank accounts, the release added.