The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Police busted a Ponzi investment scam running into Rs 144 crore and arrested the mastermind from Maharashtra.

The accused Vishal Sakharam Utkar, a resident of Latur, Maharashtra was arrested from Mundwa, Pune under Sections 420/467/468/471/120-B of IPC read with Sections 4/5/6/ of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 Section 6 of Odisha Prevention of Interest of Depositors Act, 2011 and Section 66 (C)/66 (D) of Information Technology Act.

The accused was produced before the local Cantonment Court, Pune and was brought to Bhubaneswar on the strength of transit remand for his production before the OPID Court, Cuttack, EOW officials said.

During investigation so far, Rs 144 crores involved in this Ponzi investment scam has been traced. The company was running online money circulation by running Ponzi schemes in the name of crypto mining and operating throughout India. The amount of invested money and the number of investors will go up with the progress of investigation, they said.

Out of the invested amount, Rs.9 crores was found to have been transferred to the account of the arrested accused Vishal Sakharam Utkar.

EOW took up the investigation of the scam after Dibyajyoti Kar of Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar lodged a complaint alleging that he was deceived by the Ponzi unit.

The complainant was attracted by the colourful propaganda videos containing the promotional activities and invested Rs 1.27 lakh in it. He was assured of high returns of 6 per cent daily on the invested amount apart from daily withdrawal facility.

The complainant created an account on the website of GETSO company and through an up line referral link. During the period from October 2022 to 24 December 2022, he deposited an amount of Rs 1.27 lakh with the company. Subsequently, the GETSO WhatsApp group was closed and withdrawal requests were ignored by GETSO.

The complainant was among thousands of other investors across India who was duped by the fraudulent ploy of the company. More than one hundred investors from Odisha might have been deceived by the Ponzi firm, EOW added.