Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) on arrested the director of a Kerala-based shell company from Thrissur in connection with an online ponzi case.
The accused has been identified as Dileep Kumar (35), the director of one Kerala-based shell company Priwest Global Solution Pvt Ltd, which channelised the ill-gotten money of this scam.
The EOW has traced around Rs 19.49 crore, routed using the company. According to the EOW, around 5,000 illegal transactions were made in the bank accounts of Priwest Global Solution Pvt Ltd and Omana Foundation Public Charitable Trust.
Earlier, two directors of Kolkata-based shell company “Hakim & Rustam Fabrics Pvt. Ltd” were arrested from Kolkata and one director of a shell company “Edudaddy Institute of Advance Studies Pvt Ltd” was arrested from Udaipur, Rajasthan.
Sources said an FIR was registered on the complaint of more than 800 investors in the Ganjam district. They had invested money in 18football.com to earn quick money. 18football.com is a hybrid model of fraud where the ponzi scheme runs online giving the name of a football betting application.
The fraudsters initially paid the promised return for a few days to the investors, but when the membership increased, they stopped making any payments and closed the app 18football.com.
The fraud by 18football.com has got all-India ramifications, and the fraud amount involved is suspected to be more than Rs 1000 crore, out of which EOW has been able to trace transactions of approximately Rs 525 crore so far, said EOW officials.
