BHUBANESWAR: A lookout circular has been issued against Chinese national Guanhan Wang for allegedly running ponzi firms and duping hundreds of investors of Odisha and other parts of the country to the tune of several crores. The move came after the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Crime Branch approached the Bureau of Immigration (BOI) on the matter. The EOW had registered a case in this regard earlier this year during which it found that the money collected by cheating the investors was transferred out of the country through a complex network involving mule bank accounts, shell companies and cryptocurrency traders.
Guanhua Wang, 40, is a resident of Hangzhou in China. He had formed a company - Bettec Technologies Private Limited in 2019 with its office at Dickenson Road in Bengaluru.
EOW’s investigation revealed that he also controlled at least two other companies, Gamecamp Technologies Private Limited in Chennai and Byrontec Solutions Private Limited in Bengaluru, through mule directors.
EOW inspector general (IG) Jai Narayan Pankaj said Wang had visited India, mostly Bengaluru, six times between 2019 and 2020. “He is now running ponzi scams from China and is involved in duping the investors from Odisha and other parts of the country,” he said. His associates in India are arranging mule bank accounts, shell companies, crypto traders and circulating advertisements of various ponzi schemes.
Lookout circular issued against Chinese national over ponzi scam
They used morphed photographs of famous Indian celebrities to win the confidence of the investors, the IG informed. Initial investigations suggest Bettec Technologies has siphoned off over `100 crore by cheating investors. “EOW has frozen about Rs 70 lakh from the company’s bank account. We have requested Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to provide details of the ponzi firm’s other bank accounts, if any,” said Pankaj.
During the last one year, EOW found out that Chinese nationals were involved in at least three of its cases related to ponzi/online scams. In all the cases, the links of Chinese nationals were traced to Bengaluru. Lookout circulars were earlier issued against five Chinese nationals in connection with two cases of EOW.