Look out notice issued against three Chinese nationals for online ponzi scam

BHUBANESWAR: The Immigration Bureau has issued a lookout notice against three Chinese nationals in connection with an online ponzi scam case registered by the economic offences wing (EOW) of the Odisha crime branch, an official said on Monday.

The Bureau of Immigration issued the lookout circular against Liu Huan, Wenhui Zheng and Xu Xiaolu, considered close associates of Guanhua Wang, the prime accused and mastermind of the scam, at the request of the EOW.

A look out notice was issued against Wang, a 40-yearold resident of Hangzhou in China in connection to the online scam a few days ago, the EOW official said.

The EOW had registered a case against the pan-India online ponzi scam involving fraud and siphoning of hundreds of crores rupees of innocent people out of India using a complex network of mule bank accounts, shell companies and crypto-traders, he said.

Wang along with the other three Chinese nationals came to India in 2019 and stayed in Bangalore for a few months. They created at least 14 shell companies based in the southern city to run various cyber-financial frauds. Initially they had focussed on the ‘killer loan apps’ but after the these were banned, they switched over to the fraudulent earning and betting apps.

During investigation the EOW detected more than 85 bank accounts through which Rs 100 crore were transacted. The accused had used numerous mule directors, some of them house wives to cheat the people. (PTI)