Bhubaneswar: In a significant development, the Economic Offences Wing, Bhubaneswar, has arrested accused Vishal Sakharam Utkar, a resident of Latur, Maharashtra, from Mundwa, Pune, on March 30 in connection with the EOW PS Case No.10 dt.23.03.2023 under Sections 420/467/468/471/120-B IPC, r/w Section 4/5/6/ of PCMCS Act, 1978, Section6 of OPID Act, 2011 & Section 66 (C)/66 (D) of IT Act.
The accused was produced before the local Cantonment Court, Pune, and was brought to Bhubaneswar on the strength of transit remand for his production before the OPID Court, Cuttack.
This case was registered on the report of a victim of this scam Dibyajyoti Kar of Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar being attracted by the colourful propaganda videos containing promotional activities, he associated himself with a WhatsApp group through a person identifying as the manager of a company namely GETSO engaged in crypto mining. He was induced to invest with the company for getting high returns like 6% daily on the invested amount apart from the daily withdrawal facility.
The complainant created an account on the website of GETSO company and through an upline referral link. During the period from October 2022 to December 24, 2022, he deposited an amount of Rs 1.27 lakh with the company. Subsequently, the GETSO WhatsApp group was closed and withdrawal requests were ignored by GETSO. The company allegedly cheated him like thousands of other investors/ victims across India. There would be more than 100 investors from Odisha alone.
The modus operandi of GETSO was as below:
- GETSO fraudulently claimed to be a Washington-based based company on its website/APP.
- GETSO APP was available in Google Play Store with more than 10,000 downloads.
- It was showcased as a dollar-earning APP.
- It claimed to be engaged in crypto mining but actually was running a Ponzi/multi-level marketing online scam.
- One needed to register with the APP after downloading it.
- One could also join it through a referral link on its website.
- Members would get a certain amount of commission on introducing the new/downline members in this scheme.
- GETSO had multiple schemes to make quick money, like $10 investment – $0.5 daily return X 38 days; $28 investment – $1.68 daily return X 36 days; $68 investment – $3.6 daily return X 39 days; $108 investment – $6 daily return X 37 days up to $960 plan etc.
- The company used some You Tubers to promote the scheme – like Earning Guru Mj https://youtu.be/rMiIXYyPkfw
- On October 25, 2022, GETSO announced that it is withdrawing from the Indian market claiming high taxation from the Indian government on cryptocurrency.
During the investigation, Rs 144 crore involved in this scam was traced. The company was running online money circulation by via Ponzi schemes on the pretext of crypto mining and operating throughout India. The amount of money invested and the number of investors will go up with the progress of the investigation.
Out of the invested amount, Rs 9 crore was found to have been transferred to the account of the arrested accused Vishal Sakharam Utkar.
