The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police has said it traced transactions of approximately ₹446 crore in a Ponzi scheme involving ‘18football.com’. Police called it a “hybrid model of fraud” where multi-level marketing is run online in the name of football betting or gaming application.
“The EOW arrested Naveen Poriwar from Udaipur, Rajasthan, who is the director of a shell company named Edudadday Institute of Advanced Studies Private Limited. This company was used to channelise ill-gotten money of this scam,” said Jai Narayan Pankaj, Inspector-General of Police. The investigating agency could trace around ₹11.74 crore that was routed using this company.
Mr. Poriwar is also director of Salintech Software Solutions Private Limited, Frudot Technologies Private Limited, Gemodoch Software Solutions Private Limited, all believed to be shell companies by police. Though the accused is a resident of Udaipur, Rajasthan, all his companies are registered in Kerala, the EOW said.
Police suspect these shell companies were used to channelise crime proceeds as well. Mr. Poriwar was produced before a local court in Udaipur and was being brought to Odisha, said EOW.
Odisha Police had launched an investigation upon receiving complaints from 800 duped investors of Odisha’s Ganjam district.
Mr. Pankaj said, “It is a huge international scam run online from a website registered in Hong Kong and also operated from Dubai. Investors are promised lucrative benefits like 3% daily compound return on investment, recharge bonus, referral bonus, extra bonus on the earning of the downline members, salary bonus and daily withdrawal option.”
Speaking on the modus operandi, police said initially, investors were required to create an account with ‘18football.com’ either by application or through offline referral link or through betting money in some football matches as prescribed in website. Investors were also provided with a ‘mentor’, usually a foreigner, to assist them in betting while these mentors communicated through Telegram or other apps only.
The fraudsters had also taken up promotional activities, like social work in the rural areas, to gain publicity and give an impression that the scheme is bonafide.
“The fraudsters had paid the promised returns for a few days. Later, when the membership increased, they stopped making any payment and closed ‘18football.com’,” said EOW.
The amount involved in the fraud was suspected to be more than ₹1,000 crore, out of which EOW was able to trace transactions of approximately ₹446 crore.
Published - March 15, 2023 10:17 pm IST
