SAMBALPUR: Sambalpur police on Thursday froze all the bank accounts of Santosh Kumar Acharya, the mastermind of the multi-crore fraud who allegedly duped investors across western Odisha through a fraud investment firm MCX-CT.
IG (Northern Range) Himanshu Kumar Lal said police have recovered `81.20 lakh after freezing at least 58 bank accounts operated by 42-year-old Acharya to carry out fraudulent transactions.
Police also raided Acharya’s house and office and recovered crucial evidence. The searches were carried out in presence of the executive magistrate during which police seized several documents including forged fixed deposit certificates, bonds, assurance letters to investors, cancelled cheques of different banks, computers, printers, note counting machines and other incriminating items.
Sambalpur SP Mukesh Bhamoo said the accused was operating under MCX-CT by claiming it to the legitimate branch of Bangalore-based investment firm MCX.
Identifying himself as the authorised agent of the firm, he ran the fraudulent investment scheme since 2013.
The SP said Acharya lured hundreds of investors with the promise of high and assured returns.
He gave formal commitments like fixed deposit bonds and login certificates as proof of their investment to provide returns ranging from three-seven per cent monthly interest. Initially, he provided periodic returns to maintain trust and encourage further investment. However from February 2024, the accused stopped making returns citing financial constraints.
Bhamoo informed that initially for the first few years, the accused was claiming to be investing in stocks. However, he later started swindling the money collected from investors.
Every month, he convinced new people to invest money and used the fund to pay interests to old investors. He rotated the money of investors for years until he lost calculation and ran out of funds.
“The actions of the accused constitute criminal breach of trust, cheating and financial fraud. Hence, the case will be transferred to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for further investigation,” he added.
Acharya was arrested on February 25 from his house at Mauli Nagar in Kuluthkani area of Sambalpur.