BHUBANESWAR: Chief executive officer (CEO) of an online Ponzi firm, wanted by Odisha EOW for allegedly duping 2.5 lakh investors of around Rs 200 crore in different states, has been arrested from Jaipur airport in Rajasthan while he was trying to escape to Dubai on Thursday, cops said on Friday.
The accused was identified as Sandeep Choudhary, 40. His two associates – Basant Kumar Pradhan and Manoj Kumar Patnaik – who were looking after the operations in Odisha have been arrested from Bhubaneswar.
Last month, the EOW registered a case against the trio after receiving a complaint from a duped investor, Swagat Kumar Nayak (27) of Puri. Nayak lost around Rs 80,000 after investing in the Ponzi firm.
“During investigation we found that Choudhury’s YES World company was illegally operating a pyramid-structured online Ponzi scheme under the garb of crypto investment and collected deposits without any authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI),” said EOWs inspector general of police J N Pankaj.
The company lured people to invest in crypto-currency and encouraged them to enrol more investors under them to get hefty returns.
“We have found that more than 8,000 investors in Odisha deposited money in the company for heavy returns. The company’s operations were spread across Bhubaneswar, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur, Keonjhar and Nayagarh. Besides, about 2.5 lakh more people from Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Haryana, Gujarat, Bihar and Jharkhand invested in the company,” Pankaj said.
A look-out circular was recently issued against Choudhury to prevent his escape from the country. On Thursday, he was reportedly trying to flee to Dubai from Jaipur when the immigration authorities detained him and informed the EOW.
EOW said Choudhury reportedly floated several shell companies for alleged money laundering activities. Choudhury travelled to different parts of Odisha to lure investors and reportedly clicked photographs with Bollywood celebrities to influence and attract depositors.
