“While the firm is headed by one David Gez, a Hungarian national who visited India, including Odisha, multiple times to promote the illegal business, we have found the complicity of a citizen of The Netherlands in the fraud. We are trying to gather more details about him and his role,” said EOW’s inspector general J N Pankaj.
Even as the probe agency has started the legal process to issue a lookout circular against Gez, the investigating officers said STA Token is trying to relaunch the company with a new identity to lure investors.
Gez has deactivated his Instagram and Facebook accounts.
“As the investors of STA Token are in panic after our crackdown, some of the top functionaries of the fraud company are now active on social media and trying to mislead investors with false assurances. They are trying to revive STA Token with a new identity and fresh offers. We appeal to people not to fall into the trap,” Pankaj said.
Gurtej Singh Sidhu and Nirod Das, who are the country and state heads of STA Token respectively, are being interrogated in EOW custody. They were arrested from Rajasthan and Bhadrak respectively on August 7. The EOW has got some clues about other members of the gang and are trying to arrest them, sources said.
According to the EOW, the company was illegally operating a pyramid-structured ponzi business and collected around Rs 1,000 crore deposits from 2 lakh people across the country without having any authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India.
Officials said the company lured people on social media to invest in cryptocurrency and encouraged them to enrol more investors under them.
To build the networks, the company offered an incentive to members, saying the scale of interest and bonus for members would depend on the number of investors they bring.
Credit: Source link