Odisha EOW Takes Rs 1000 Crore Crypto Ponzi Scam Accused On 3-Day Remand

Cuttack: The Economic Offence Wing (EOW), Bhubaneswar, on Monday  took Gurtej Sigh Sidhu and Nirod Das, who were arrested for allegedly running a whopping Rs 1,000 crore pan-India crypto Ponzi racket, on three-day remand for interrogation.

The duo was produced before the OPID Court in Cuttack on Monday. The EOW had appealed to the court for five-day remand of the accused persons for interrogation in the scam, but were allowed to take them for 3 days, sources said.

A Punjab native, Gurtez Singh Sidhu was at the top of the pyramid of the firm called Solar Techno Alliance (STA), allegedly headed by David Gez, a Hungarian national. Das was its Odisha head. STA was launched in September 2021, introduced its token project in February 2022 and launched its initial coin offering (ICO) a month later.

According to EOW, the firm ran a massive crypto-currency-based Ponzi scam without being authorised by the Reserve Bank of India to collect public deposits. The one-stop solar technologies service, which uses blockchain technology, allegedly collected Rs 30 crore from at least 10,000 people, including government officials and police personnel, in Bhadrak, Keonjhar, Balasore, Mayurbhanj and Bhubaneswar, and around Rs 1,000 crore from 2 lakh investors in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Jharkhand, Assam and Madhya Pradesh.

Investors were promised returns ranging from $20 to $3,000 per day if they joined STA’s schemes and added new members under them.

The firm ran its operation in Bhadrak, Balasore, Khurda, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, Kendrapada and Keonjhar districts. Transactions of over Rs 30 crore have been traced in the bank accounts of Das and have been frozen. “We found that Rs 15 crore was credited in two accounts of Das between January and July this year. Both the accounts showed a higher amount of cash deposits,” EOW IG, Jai Narayan Pankaj said.

Both Gez and Gurtej lived lavishly, and travelled in expensive cars flanked by bouncers.The company had organised a grand celebration at a luxurious hotel in Goa last week which was attended by actor Govinda along with over 1,000 members.

Singh had been changing his hideouts constantly by travelling to places like Goa, Lonavala, Mumbai, Delhi, Faridkot, Bathinda, Hanumangarh and Sri Ganganagar. A team of EOW was on his trial and eventually arrested him from Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan. He was then brought to Odisha on seven-day transit remand.