Two arrested in Rs 1000-cr crypto-ponzi scam called STA Crypto Token: Odisha police

“We were chasing the accused for the past few days as he was frequently changing his location in places like Goa, Lonavala, Mumbai, Delhi, Faridkot, Bhatinda, Hanumangadh and Sri Ganganagar. A team of the Economic Offence Wing was tracking his movements,” said J N Pankaj, inspector-general of the wing, which also arrested Nirod Das of Bhadrak.

An associate of Sidhu, Nirod Das was produced before the court on Sunday. Transactions of more than Rs 30 crore were detected in Das’s bank account, while the total money involved in the scam is estimated to be more than Rs 1,000 crore, police sources said.

The police wing started an investigation after getting intelligence from various sources that a crypto currency-based ponzi scam was being run in Odisha, especially in the districts of Bhadrak, Balasore, Bhubaneswar, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Keonjhar.

A statement issued by the police said the fraudsters were found to have been operating in these districts through some upline members. “They have been using various propaganda tools to persuade people to join the scheme and earn huge money in a very short time,” it said.

While over 2 lakh people mainly from Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Assam have invested in the scheme after getting high returns, the number of investors in Odisha is more than 10,000, said police sources.

The police said STA was not authorised by the RBI or any other authorities to collect deposits and that it was illegally running a multi-level marketing scheme in the garb of a crypto token.

Pankaj said that STA used popular terms like green energy and solar technology to mask the crypto-ponzi scam. While its website is hosted in Iceland, the activities are limited to India.

STA throws lunch and dinner parties and conducts several programmes featuring motivational speakers and music, including at fancy hotels, to attract new members, he said.