One thousand crore crypto ponzi scam arrested
Bhubaneswar. The Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police has arrested one of the close associates of the main accused in the Rs 1,000 crore STA token crypto-Ponzi scam. EOW officials arrested Sushil Kumar Tudu from Nirsa police station area of Dhanbad district of Jharkhand on Wednesday. The accused has been brought to Odisha on three-day transit remand and produced before the OPID court in Cuttack on Friday. Earlier, EOW had arrested three accused including India head Gurtej Sidhu, while a look out circular was issued against four others including Hungarian national David Geij.
Sushil Kumar is the founding member and Jharkhand head of the suspected company, STA (Solar Techno Alliance), which was launched in September 2021. The company, which operated on a pyramid structure and multi-level marketing, collected Rs 1,000 crore by luring millions of people across several states in the country, including Odisha, to invest in its cryptocurrency-based Ponzi schemes by promising attractive returns. Accused Sushil Kumar is the immediate down line member of main accused and STA India chief Gurtej Singh and immediate up line member of Odisha state chief Nirod Kumar Das.
Nirod first met Sushil on Facebook, who convinced him to invest in STA’s crypto-Ponzi schemes. Nirod later lured more than 1,000 people from Odisha to invest in Ponzi schemes. The fraudsters defrauded victims in Bhadrak, Balasore, Bhubaneswar, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Keonjhar districts of the state to the tune of more than Rs 30 crore through the scheme. EOW sources said, “During the investigation, we found that Sushil Kumar, being the founder member, took under his control thousands of down line members in various districts of Odisha and Jharkhand. He has earned more than Rs 4 crore from the amount illegally collected from down line members. He used to earn Rs 80,000 per day.” EOW officials also discovered that Sushil Kumar had managed to acquire huge wealth by using the fraudulent funds.
