Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing, Bhubaneswar has arrested accused Vishal Sakharam Utkar, a resident of Latur, Maharashtra, from Mundwa, Pune on 30.03.2023 in EOW PS Case No.10 dt.23.03.2023 U/s 420/467/468/471/120-B IPC, r/w Sec.4/5/6/ of PCMCS Act, 1978, Sec.6 of OPID Act, 2011 & Sec.66 (C)/66 (D) of IT 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.
This case was registered on the report of a victim of this scam Dibyajyoti Kar of Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar that being attracted by the colourful propaganda videos containing the promotional activities, he associated himself with a WhatsApp group through a person identifying as Manager of a company namely GETSO doing the business of crypto mining. He was induced to invest with the company for getting high returns like 6% daily on the invested amount apart from daily withdrawal facility.
The complt. created an account in the website of GETSO company and through upline referral link. During the period from October 2022 to 24.12.2022, 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 company cheated him like thousands of other investors/ victims across India. There would be more than hundred investors from Odisha alone.
MODUS OPERANDI
1.GETSO fraudulently claimed to be a Washington, USA based company on its website/APP.
2. GETSO APP was available in Google Play Store with more than 10000 downloads.
3. It was showcased as dollar earning APP.
4. It claimed to be doing the Crypto Mining but actually was running a
Ponzi/ Multi-Level Marketing online scam.
5. One needs to register afterdownloading it.
6. One could join it through referral link of its website too.
7. Members would get certain commission on introducing the new/ down- line members in this scheme.
8.It had multiple scheme of quick moneymaking investments,like-
A. 10 USD investment- 0.5 USD daily return X 38 days
B. 28 USD investment – 1.68 USD daily return X 36 days
C. 68 USD investment- 3.6 USD daily return X 39 days
D. 108 USD investment- 6 USD daily return 37 days Up to 960 USD plan etc.
9. It used some You Tubers to promote the scheme- like Earning Guru Mj
10. On 25.10.2022 GETSO announced that it is withdrawing from Indian market claiming high taxation from Indian Government on crypto- currency.
During investigation, so far, Rs.144 Crores involved in this scam have 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.
Out of the invested amount, Rs.9 Crores was found to have been transferred to the account of the arrested accused Vishal Sakharam Utkar. The investigation of the case is on, the EOW said.
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