BHUBANESWAR: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Crime Branch on Friday arrested a man for his alleged involvement in an inter-state crypto ponzi scam amounting to a whopping Rs 200 crore.
The accused, Sankar Sarkar of Bhubaneswar, had been absconding ever since the EOW registered a case in this regard in 2023. As per the agency, at least 2.5 lakh people from states like Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Haryana, Gujarat, Bihar and Jharkhand had deposited over Rs 200 crore in ponzi firm Yes World, operated by Sarkar and his associates. The company had been opened in 2022.
Out of the total cheated amount, Rs 5 lakh was transferred to his personal account. The agency had registered a case in this regard in 2023 after a Puri native, Swagat Kumar Nayak, lodged a complaint alleging a group of scamsters had duped him of Rs 85,000 on the promise of providing him higher returns by investing his money in cryptocurrency.
During investigation, EOW officials found that Sarkar and his accomplices were collecting public deposits on the pretext of investing their money in cryptocurrency and providing them high returns.
“The accused were running illegal money circulation schemes in pyramid-structured model by adding more and more members below them. Investigation revealed about 8,000 people from Odisha invested their money in the scheme,” EOW officials said. As per the agency, the group’s members mainly targeted gullible investors in Bhubaneswar, Khurda, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Keonjhar and Nayagarh.
“The accused, including Sarkar, arranged meetings and seminars both in physical or virtual mode for promotional activities and to add new members. They created websites and mobile applications and used WhatsApp groups to display fabricated returns and their network’s growth,” said an EOW official.
Sarkar was arrested and produced in court. Prime accused Sandeep Choudhury was arrested in 2023. Further investigation is continuing, said an EOW official.