The Enforcement Directorate (ED) announced on Friday that four people have been arrested in relation to a Rs 400 crore fraud online betting and gaming app allegedly linked to some Chinese citizens. The federal investigative agency said in a statement that Arun Sahu, Alok Sahu, Chetan Prakash and Joseph Stalin were placed under arrest in connection with the ‘Fiewin’ app case in accordance with the terms of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The Cossipore police station in Kolkata received a FIR from some unknown individuals accusing them of cheating and conspiracy with several online players via the app, which is where the money laundering case originated.
“An amount of Rs 400 crore was generated from the Fiewin app fraud and thereafter was credited into eight Binance (global crypto exchange) 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 four accused persons through digital communication, especially groups on Telegram (social communication app),” the ED said.
These four individuals were detained, according to the FBI, since they were determined to have participated in money laundering through their active role in the Fiewin app-based scam.
The ED stated that these individuals were placed in ED custody for 14 days by a special PMLA court in Kolkata, but it did not specify when they were apprehended. According to the ED, an investigation revealed that Chinese people were using the app with Indian people’s assistance and cooperation. As per the ED’s investigation, money collected from gullible online gamers via the Fiewin app was transferred into the bank accounts of recharge persons, or those who had consented to the app owners using their accounts in lieu of receiving specified profits.
The organisation discovered that Arun and Alok Sahu, who are based in Rourkela, Odisha, served as recharge persons and turned the money that came via the app into cryptocurrencies in their bank accounts.
According to reports, the pair laundered and deposited the cryptocurrency that users of the Fiewin app earned into Chinese users’ wallets on the international cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
According to the ED, engineer Chetan Prakash, who is located in Patna, assisted “recharge persons” in converting Indian rupees into cryptocurrencies, thereby playing a “key role” in the money laundering operations. Joseph Stalin, a software developer working out of Chennai, assisted Pie Pengyun, a Chinese native from Gansu province, in becoming a co-director of Studio 21 Pvt Ltd, a business he owned. ED further stated Pengyun used Studio 21 Pvt Ltd’s account for bulk payout services linked to the app, which initially helped them win over players’ trust and encouraged bigger wagers from the app’s users.
“The funds used for payout services were received by Joseph Stalin as cryptocurrency in his Binance account from the wallets controlled by the Chinese handlers. He in turn converted cryptocurrency into INR (Indian Rupee) by selling the crypto through P2P mode on Binance,” the agency claimed.
(with inputs from PTI)