Bhubaneswar, November 17: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police has unearthed another multi crore crypto-ponzi scam and arrested three fraudsters including the mastermind. The EOW apprehended the prime accused, Sandeep Choudhary, from Jaipur and his local aides Basant Kumar Pradhan and Manoj Kumar Patnaik from Bhubaneswar on Thursday. Sandeep, a native of Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan, is the head of the dubious firm “YES WORLD Crypto Token.” He is also allegedly involved in several other suspected shell companies too.

Sandeep, a B. Tech graduate from NIIT Jaipur, used to click photographs with influential persons and would later try to win the faith of victims using the same. Following request of the EOW of Odisha Police, the Bureau of Immigration (BoI) has issued a look out circular against Sandeep on November 8. “On Wednesday, while he was trying to escape from India to Dubai, he was intercepted and detained by BOI at Jaipur International airport under intimation to EOW, Odisha. The EOW team went to Jaipur and arrested the accused,” said an EOW official. Crypto Ponzi Scam: Odisha Economic Offence Wing Busts Rs 1,000 Crore Cryptocurrency Fraud, STA Crypto Token Head and Colleague Arrested

All the accused will be produced before the OPID court at Cuttack on Friday. The accused were apprehended in connection with a case registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by one Swagat Kumar Nayak of Puri. He had alleged in his complaint that Sandeep, Basant and Manoj had duped Swagat off Rs 85, 000 on the pretext of high interest against investments in crypto currency. The sham company is being operated on pyramid structure and multi level marketing system and collected huge amounts from its members in Odisha and other states.

The EOW also found during investigation that Yes World has been active on various social media platforms under the garb of Climate Change, Global warming, pictures with celebrities etc. However, it never mentions the Crypto-Ponzi scheme on social media platforms. It follows the same modus operandi to mislead the gullible investors as followed by the dubious company STA (Solar Techno Alliance) that was involved in Rs 1000 crore crypto-ponzi scam. Yes World without obtaining the permission of RBI has collected around Rs 200 crore from different persons across the country by luring them to invest in cryptocurrency-based ponzi schemes. Cryptocurrency Scam in Himachal Pradesh: Four Cops Among Eight More Arrests by SIT in Multicrore Cryptocurrency Ponzi Scam

“There are more than 8000 members/investors in Odisha alone who have invested money in this scheme. In Odisha, it is mainly spread in Bhubaneswar, Khordha, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Keonjhar and Nayagarh. This scheme/scam has around 2.5 lakh members (Pan India) mainly in the states like Punjab, Rajasthan, Odisha, West Bengal, Haryana, Gujrat, Bihar, Jharkhand etc.,” said EOW sources. Though the company claims to be registered in Singapore, its business activities are limited to India only.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 17, 2023 05:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).