Odisha: One arrested in Rs 1,000 cr crypto-ponzi scam

Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police has arrested one of the close aides of the prime accused in the Rs 1,000 crore STA Token crypto-ponzi scam, an official said on Friday.

The EOW sleuths arrested Sushil Kumar Tudu from Nirsa police station area in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand on Wednesday.

The accused has been brought to Odisha on a three-day transit remand and will be produced before the OPID court, Cuttack on Friday.

Earlier, EOW had arrested three accused including India Head Gurtej Siddhu, while look out circulars have been issued against four others including a Hungarian national, David Gej.

Sushil Kumar is the founder member and Jharkhand head of the dubious company, STA (Solar Techno Alliance), which was launched in September 2021.

The company operated on pyramid structure and Multi Level Marketing collected Rs 1000 crores from lakhs of persons in several states of the country including Odisha by inducing them to invest in its cryptocurrency-based Ponzi schemes promising lucrative returns.

The accused Sushil Kumar is the immediate down line member of Gurtej Singh, the prime accused and India head of the STA, and immediate up line member of Nirod Kumar Das, the state head of Odisha.

Nirod first came across Sushil on Facebook, who persuaded him to invest in the crypto-ponzi schemes by STA.

Nirod later lured more than 1,000 persons from Odisha to invest in the ponzi schemes.

The fraudsters defrauded more than Rs 30 crore through the scheme from victims in Bhadrak, Balasore, Bhubaneswar, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Keonjhar districts of the state.

“During investigation, we found that Sushil Kumar being the founding member, got thousands of down line members under him both in various districts of Odisha and Jharkhand. He has earned more than Rs 4 crore of the amounts collected illegally from the down line members. He used to earn Rs 80,000 per day,” informed EOW sources.

The EOW sleuths also ascertained that Sushil Kumar had managed to acquire huge assets using the fraud amount.

“Further, it was found that he is also a member of different groups doing fraud in the name of Crypto Investment adopting the same Modus Operandi. These groups are Striker Pro, Beeta Global Development Team, Bulleto Crypto Machine, Wellbe 24 899, ME 300 Binary Income per day, 3000 cupping and many more. During investigation, an amount of Rs 15.53 lakh lying in his bank accounts has been frozen,” EOW sources revealed.