Four including two from Odisha held by ED in Chinese-linked online betting app fraud worth Rs 400 cr

Bhubaneswar, Aug 17: Directorate of enforcement (ED), Kolkata has arrested 4 persons namely Arun Sahu, Alok Sahu, Chetan Prakash and Joseph Stalin under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in connection with the Fiewin app based online betting /gaming fraud.

ED initiated investigation on the basis of FIR registered by Cossipore Police Station, Kolkata under various sections of IPC, 1860 against Unknown responsible persons for cheating and conspiracy through online gaming app “FIEWIN”.

ED investigation revealed that Chinese nationals were operating the App with the help and support from Indian Nationals. The funds mobilized from the gullible online gamers through the Fiewin app were deposited into the bank accounts of various persons (called recharge persons) who had allowed the use of their accounts by the App owners in lieu of certain commissions. Arun Sahu and Alok Sahu who are based out of Rourkela ,Orissa had acted as “recharge persons” and the funds received in their bank accounts from the Fiewin app were converted into crypto currency. They deposited and laundered the crypto currency so earned from the Fiewin app to the wallets of Chinese nationals on foreign crypto exchange namely Binance.

Chetan Prakash, an engineer based out of Patna, Bihar played a key role in the money laundering activities by helping such “recharge persons” in conversion of INR into crypto currency ( USDT ).

Another person named Joseph Stalin, a software engineer based out of Chennai, helped Chinese national named Pie Pengyun from Gansu province to become co-director of Studio 21 Pvt ltd, a company owned by him. Pie Pengyun used the account of Studio 21 pvt ltd for bulk payout services related to the app which helped them gain confidence of gamers in the beginning and provoked larger bets from the app users. The funds used for payout services were received by Joseph Stalin as crypto currency in his Binance accountfrom the wallets controlled by the Chinese handlers. He in turn converted the USDT crypto currency into INR by selling the crypto through P2P mode on Binance.

ED investigation further revealed that an amount of Rs. 400 Crore (Approx ) was generated from the Fiewin App based fraud and thereafter was credited into 8 Binance wallets in the name of Chinese nationals. These wallets were operated from the Chinese mainland as revealed by the access IP logs. The Chinese nationals communicated with and instructed the above named accused persons through digital communication especially telegram groups .Since the above named 4 persons namely Arun Sahu, Alok Sahu, Chetan Prakash, Joseph Stalin have played an active role in the Fiewin app based scam and they are found to be involved in the offence of money laundering, all of them were arrested and produced before the  Special Court (PMLA). The  Court has granted the ED Custody of all the four accused persons for a duration of 14 days.

Further investigation is under progress.