BHUBANESWAR: The Bureau of Immigration has issued a lookout circular against three more 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, the Bureau issued the notices 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 are accused of running fake loan apps like Kredit Gold and harassing/extorting money from over one lakh customers in various parts of the country including Odisha.
The EOW sources said the trio was 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 investigation has revealed that the three accused were attempting to expand their network in African and Middle East countries.
Sources said Zhenhua, Hongwei and Haiying operated in India through many shell companies like M/s Goodstart Business private limited, and M/s Rightstart Business private limited, among others. Indian nationals had been appointed as the directors of such 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.
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 salary/commission for running the fake loan apps in India. Goodstart is not registered as a non-banking financial company and was illegally operating as a digital lender through various loan applications including Kredit Gold.
“We will request Interpol through the authorities concerned 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 The New Indian Express.