Bhubaneswar: The Bureau of Immigration (BOI) has issued a lookout circular (LoC) against a Hungarian national and head of a crypto-ponzi firm who is allegedly involved in deceiving investors of their money, the EOW said Saturday.
The firm, STA Token is accused of operating a ponzi business and collecting around Rs 1,000 crore deposits from two lakh people across the country without any authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India, it said.
The LoC was issued at the request of Odisha’s Economic Offence Wing (EOW), which has been probing the alleged scandal, it said.
The EOW registered a case against the company under different sections of the IPC and The Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes-Banning) Act.
The involvement of second foreigner, a Dutch national, in this scam is under scrutiny, an official said.
The Hungarian David Gez , the head of STA Token, had entered India twice in 2022-23 on a tourist visa and stayed in India for about 25 days travelling to various places like Odisha, Goa, Punjab, Jharkhand and Delhi,m the EOW said.
The first time he had travelled to India via USA and Turkiye and second time via Poland. In Odisha, he travelled to Bhubaneswar and Bhadrak.
Gez has deleted his Instagram account after registration of the case but his Indian associates are still issuing Youtube videos using his AI generated picture and voice, the EOW said.
Some top line players of the scam are also carrying out publicity activity in the social media platforms like YouTube and Whatsapp and continuing to dupe innocent investors. Their activities are under surveillance and action will be taken against them, it said.
According to the rules of the ministry of external affairs, indulging in business and promotion activity is not allowed for those in the country with tourist visa.
The official said that the EOW will report the matter to MEA for necessary action in addition to the legal action in the case.
The EOW has so far arrested Gurtej Singh Sidhu and Nirod Das, the country and state heads of STA Token respectively, from Rajasthan and Bhadrak August 7.
A Bhubaneswar-based investment advisor and financial consultant was also nabbed August 15.
PTI