A lookout circular was issued against Chinese national Guanhua Wang, one of the main accused in an online ponzi scam, on the request of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha crime branch.

The bureau of immigration (BoI) under the ministry of home affairs has issued the circular against Wang, 40, who duped lakhs of investors online.

The accused has siphoned more than Rs 100 crore through his company.

A LOC is generally issued to alert immigration check posts at airports/seaports to alert law enforcement agencies if a wanted person tries to leave a country or arrive in a country from abroad.

EOW in a press release said: “The case is related toa huge pan-India online ponzi scam involving fraud andsiphoning of hundreds of crores rupees out of India using a complex network of mule bank accounts, shell companies/ firms and crypto-traders.”

As per EOW, Wang, a resident of Hangzhou city of Zhenjiang state of China, formed a company called “Bettec Technologies Private Limited” in 2019 based in Dickenson Road in Bangalore. “He controls at least two other Bangalore-based companies through his mule directors — Gamecamp Solutions Private Limited and Byrontec Technologies Private Limited. He visited India, mainly Bangalore, six times in 2019 and 2020.”

On the modus operandi, the EOW said he was running this ponzy scam from China with the help of many India-based associates who look after the managing or arranging of mule bank accounts, shell companies or firms and crypto-traders.

Using WhatsApp, telegram and other social platforms, he runs Ads using the morphed photos of celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, Sachin Tendulkar, Akshay Kumar and Manish Paul, in order to mislead and instil trust in the public.

They also use the logo of big companies like Tata to mislead/ impress people on various social media platforms like instagram, YouTube etc. Most of the victims are from the lower middle class including many students wishing to become rich in a very short span of time using these shortcuts.

The EOW found that the accused has siphoned more than Rs 100 crore through his company. The EOW has frozen around 70 Lakh from his company’s account. “FIU (Financial Intelligence Unit) has been requested to provide details of its other accounts,” the release said.

“In the last one year, EOW Odisha has found at least in three cases (including the current case) of cyber-financial cases involving frauds of hundreds of crore rupees being run by Chinese nationals.

“LOC has been issued in all such cases. Incidentally, all of them had their office/ linkages in Bangalore,” the release said.