BHUBANESWAR: A Punjab native who ran a pan-India crypto ponzi racket was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch for running up a whopping Rs 1,000 crore scam that had investors from 10 states. 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, EOW said on Monday.
STA claimed to be a one-stop solar technologies service that uses blockchain technology. It apparently has more than 2 lakh members across the country and mainly in states like Odisha, Assam, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Not authorised by the Reserve Bank of India to collect public deposits, STA was allegedly running a massive crypto-currency-based ponzi scam. Investigation revealed over 10,000 people from Odisha, including government officials and police personnel, were part of STA’s schemes. Investors were promised returns ranging from $20 to $3,000 per day if they joined STA’s schemes and added new members under them.
“Initially, the members received returns for a few days but then the two stopped giving them their shares. STA’s state head, Nirod Das, has also been arrested. Transactions of over Rs 30 crore have been traced in the bank accounts of Das and have been frozen,” said EOW IG, Jai Narayan Pankaj.
Both Gez and Gurtej travelled to many places in India. They run several YouTube channels to publicise their schemes and tutor new members. 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.
Both Gez and Gurtej are known to live lavishly, and travel in expensive cars flanked by bouncers. Singh who also showed off as a motivational speaker was 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 he was eventually arrested from Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan.
In Odisha, the firm ran its operation in Bhadrak, Balasore, Khurda, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Keonjhar districts. STA was launched in September 2021, introduced its token project in February 2022 and launched its initial coin offering (ICO) a month later.