Look out circular issued against Chinese national in online ponzi scam

Bhubaneswar:  On the request of the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) Odisha, a look out circular was issued against Chinese national Guanhua Wang, one of the main accused in a online ponzi scam, an official said here on Monday.

On the request of the EOW Odisha, Bureau of Immigration (BOI), the Union Ministry of Home affairs, has issued the Look out circular.

Guanhua (40) is wanted in a huge pan-India online ponzi scam involving fraud and siphoning of hundreds of crores rupees out of India using a complex network of mule bank accounts, shell companies and crypto-traders, said the EOW official.

Originally from China’s Hangzhou city, he formed a company called Bettec Technologies Private Limited in 2019 based in Dickenson Road, Bengaluru.

He also controls at least two other Bengaluru-based companies — Gamecamp Solutions Private limited and Byrontec Technologies Private Limited, through his mule directors.

During initial investigation, the EOW found that the accused had siphoned more than Rs 100 crore through his company.

It has frozen around Rs 70 lakh from his company’s account.

The Financial Intelligence Unit has been requested to provide details of its other accounts, informed the official.

The Chinese national visited India six times in 2019 and 2020, mainly Bengaluru.

After that he is running this scam from China with the help of many India based associates.

Guanhua’s Indian associates are managing the mule bank accounts, shell companies and crypto-traders, WhatsApp/Telegram group tutors and also running advertising using the morphed photos of celebrities.

To lure the investors, these scammers are using the morphed photographs of big celebrities like Amitabh Bachhan, Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, Sachin Tendukar, Technical Guruji (YouTuber), among others.

The EOW officials informed that the scamsters also use the logo of big companies like Tata to mislead/ impress people on various social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube etc.

The total transactions in the above suspected bank accounts are of more than Rs 1,000 crore, sources said.

During the last one year, EOW Odisha has found that at least in three cases including the above case of cyber-financial cases involving frauds of hundreds of crore rupees being run by Chinese nationals.

Look out circulars have been issued in all such cases. Incidentally all of them had their office/linkages in Bengaluru.

–IANS