BHUBANESWAR: The economic offences wing (EOW) of the state crime branch has blown the lid off a pan-India cryptocurrency scam, involving deposits of more than Rs 1,000 crore of more than 2 lakh people from several states, including Odisha.

Though the EOW did not receive any complaint from investors of getting duped, the agency said the company was illegally operating a pyramid-structured ponzi business and collected deposits without any authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

“Our investigation indicated that the company, STA Token (Solar Techno Alliance), seemed to be involved in illegal multi-level marketing and money circulation business in the guise of cryptocurrency investment. RBI did not give permission to the company to accept deposits,” EOW inspector general J N Pankaj said.
Prima facie, EOW found fault with the company’s country chief Gurtej Singh Sidhu and Odisha head Nirod Das, and arrested them on Monday.
While Sidhu, who hails from Faridkot in Punjab, was arrested from Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, Das was picked up from Bhadrak. Singh was produced before a court in Sri Ganganagar that granted seven days’ transit remand.
The company allegedly collected Rs 30 crore from at least 10,000 people in Bhadrak, Keonjhar, Balasore, Mayurbhanj and Bhubaneswar, and around Rs 1,000 crore from 2 lakh investors in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Jharkhand, Assam and Madhya Pradesh.
Pankaj said, “We acted on an intelligence input about a cryptocurrency scheme in Bhadrak. As per the modus operandi, Das lured locals to invest in cryptocurrency and encouraged them to enrol more investors under them. Offering an incentive for building this chain of network, the company told that the scale of interest and bonus for members would depend on the number of investors they recruit.”
The EOW found that the company’s website is hosted in Iceland, but its alleged illegal business activities are spread across India. The company claimed to be a firm dealing with IT-enabled services and export of solar technologies. It also promoted blockchain and cryptocurrency exchanges.
“We found that Rs 15 crore was credited in two accounts of Das between January and July this year. Both the accounts showed a higher amount of cash deposits,” Pankaj said.