Odisha EOW arrests fourth accused involved in online football betting racket
Bhubaneswar (IANS) | The Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Police has arrested another accused in an online football betting racket which was operated by cyber scammers from China and Dubai, police said on Monday. Police arrested 35-year-old Dilipkumar P., a diploma holder in business management, from Thrissur in Kerala. He is the fourth accused to be arrested in this case.
EOW Superintendent of Police Dilip Tripathi said he is the director of Kerala-based shell company Prevest Global Solution Pvt Ltd, which was used to channelize the illicit funds of the scam.
The EOW can trace approximately Rs 19.49 crore which have been routed using the above shell company. He said that Dilipkumar is also the founder of Omana Foundation Public Charitable Trust, Coimbatore, which was used to channelize the proceeds of this scam.
The EOW had registered a case against the online football betting company (www.18football.com) based on complaints from around 800 duped investors from Odisha’s Ganjam district. Tripathi said the online betting company (www.18football.com) is suspected of duping thousands of people in the country, including Odisha, of over Rs 1,000 crore. So far, the Odisha Police has been able to trace transactions worth Rs 525 crore.
He said that earlier two directors of a shell company in Kolkata and one director of another shell company in Rajasthan have been arrested. Tripathi said that apart from this, a look out circular has been issued against Mohammad Saif, the operator of Dubai and the mastermind of this scam. He further stated that 18football.com registered in Hong Kong is a hybrid model of fraud where Ponzi scheme (multi-level marketing) is run online by masquerading as football betting/gaming app.
As a modus operandi of the fraudulent racket, investors were promised lucrative benefits like 3% daily compounded return on investment, recharge bonus, referral bonus, additional bonus on downline members’ earnings, salary bonus, daily withdrawal option, etc. Was. The defrauded company was also provided with a foreign ‘patron’ to help investors in betting. These ‘mentors’ used to communicate only through telegram or app. Additional commissions were offered for onboarding new members to the app.
The scammers used several shell companies and their directors to route the ill-gotten money. They also used fake accounts for multi-level transactions of money transactions to mislead the law enforcement agencies.
–IANS
