EOW FREEZES RS.53.48 lakhs IN ONLINE PONJI CASE ( Cloud-Fut)
Bureau,Odishabarta
Bhubaneswar:EOW Bhubaneswar has frozen an amount of Rs.53.48 lakhs from 7
accounts lying with YES Bank and ICICI Bank in connection with EOW PS Case no
15 dated 05-04-2023 u/s 420/467/468/471/ 120 B , 66 D of IT Act & Sec 6 of OPID Act . Earlier one accused was arrested from Balasore in this case.
The case was registered on the allegation of Mahamanya Jena of Sahadebkhunta, Balasore against the arrested accused Nilesh Kar, for inducing him to invest in a App/website namely ‘Cloud-Fut’ for earning extra money.
Being induced by him, the informant invested Rs.2,13,038/- by depositing the same in
between January to March, 2023. When he was to get Rs.50,57,117/- on his invested amount, as shown in the wallet of ‘Cloud-Fut’, suddenly the website stopped functioning and the informant could not withdraw the amount.
Modus Operandi
1. The ‘Cloud-Fut’ is an online APP/ linked based company running a huge Ponzi/ MLM scheme fraudulently claiming to be a crypto mining company.
2. It claimed itself to be a USA based company headed by some Richard Purcell. A video was also shown to investors in which this person (Richard Purcell) is promoting the “Cloud Fut” in English with Americanaccent.
3. It claimed and also produced fake certificates of RBI to gain the trust ofinvestors. It was claimed that Government of India has made a 10 years agreement with “Cloud Fut”.
4. It lured more than 80,000 investors across the country with a promise of multiplying their money in a very short period. At least 200 investors are from Balasore district.
5. For introducing new members it also offered huge bonus/ commission.The policies started as low as from Rs 665/- to in Lakhs. Initially investors used to get some returns but at the end the App/ website closed.
6. It was mainly running through Telegram Channel and Whatsapp groups.
7. The arrested accused Nilesh Kar was the certified district head of Balasore. He showed the fake authorization letter from RBI and also the appointment letter of ‘Cloud-Fut’ as Dist. Leader to gain the trust. He was also promoting it through various means.
8. ‘Cloud-Fut’ has got all India ramification and has cheated lakh of persons Pan-India in the name of Crypto Mining. It is actually running the online Ponzi scam in the name of Crypto Mining.
9. Further investigation is on to find out the mastermind and top bosses of this scam.One Mobile phone containing many incriminating materials was seized from the arrested accused. Besides fake authorization/certificate purportedly issued by Governor, RBI and also the appointment letter issued to the accused by the Cloud-Fut etc. were also seized from the possession of the accused.The investigation of the case is on.
