Bhubaneswar, Aug 16: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested another accused in connection with STA crypto-ponzi scam.
The agency arrested Ratnakar Palai (45) on Monday from Bhubaneswar. Palai was an important and up-line member of STA having huge number of members below him.
Police said that Palai was close to Gurtej singh and Nirod Das, both arrested earlier by the EOW. He is an M.Tech in IT from Karnataka University, Bangalore and claims to be an international speaker, entrepreneur and investment guru.
He is also propaganda head of STA in Odisha. “He used to run a YouTube channel for wider publicity of this scheme. He is member of some other such dubious scams too which is under scrutiny. He also runs an institute namely ‘Learn to earn”. However after the arrest of Gurtej and Nirod, he has either deleted or deactivated his social media accounts. He had also visited Goa along with Nirod to participate in STA celebration,” added the official.
STA (Solar Techno Alliance) was launched in September 2021. In its website and social media accounts it claims to be a one-stop solar technologies service that enables users to order anything they like from the nearest farmers in the shortest amount of time using blockchain technology.
During the inquiry, it was found that STA through some upline members are very active in these districts and they have been using various propaganda tools to persuade people to join in this scheme and earn huge money in a very short time.
It was found that members have started using the STA token as a legal tender in their day-to-day business. It is estimated that more than 10000 people from Odisha have already been members of this scheme. This scheme has more than 2 lakh members in India including states like Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Assam.
