BHUBANESWAR: The Bureau of Immigration (BOI) has issued a lookout circular against three Chinese nationals in connection with a fake loan app case registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Crime Branch.
On receiving a request from the EOW, BOI issued a lookout circular against Shen Zhenhua alias Tony, Quan Hongwei alias Paul and Yang Haiying alias Doris. Zhenhua and Hongwei of China's Jiangsu province and Haiying of Sichuan province are the prime accused of EOW's second illegal loan app case.
The three Chinese nationals were accused of running fake loan apps like Kredit Gold and harassing/extorting money from over 1 lakh customers in various parts of the country including Odisha.
The EOW officers suspect the trio is running similar fake loan apps in other countries like Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. They also have links in the United States and Hong Kong.
The EOW's investigation has revealed the three accused were attempting to expand their criminal network in African and Middle Eastern countries.
Zhenhua, Hongwei and Haiying were operating in India in connivance with many shell companies like M/s Goodstart Business Private Limited, M/s Rightstart Business Private Limited, among others. Indians are being appointed as the directors of such shell companies.
The three accused were also taking the help of some unscrupulous officials of telecom companies, chartered accountants, company secretaries, fintech firms, recovery agents and call centres.
EOW's investigation has revealed the three of them along with a few other Chinese groups were running hundreds of illegal digital loan apps and mentally harassing and extorting money from unsuspecting borrowers, who were mostly from lower-middle-class families.
The agency arrested the director of Goodstart Business Private Limited, Nitin Mallik, from New Delhi on July 13 in connection with the case. He was drawing a huge commission from the Chinese nationals for running the fake loan apps in India. Goodstart is not registered as a non-banking financial company and it was illegally operating as a digital lender through various loan applications including Kredit Gold.
"We will request Interpol through the concerned authorities for the extradition of the three Chinese nationals to India. Efforts are being made to share information about the three accused with law enforcement agencies of other countries," EOW DIG, Jai Narayan Pankaj told TNIE.
EOW has written twice to Google to remove the illegal loan apps from Play Store. The agency has also requested the Registrar of Companies to inquire and take necessary action against the suspected shell companies, he added.