The Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Crime Branch has arrested a person for duping investors of crores of rupees by luring them to invest money through a digital app ‘CloudFut’. The accused was produced before a Court in Balasore and is being brought to Bhubaneswar on a four-day police remand.
The accused has been identified as Nilesh Kar, the Balasore head of the fake chit fund company.
According to EOW sources, the case was registered on the allegation of Mahamanya Jena of Sahadebkhunta in Balasore against Kar, for inducing him to invest in an application namely ‘Cloud-Fut’ to earn extra money.
Being induced by him, Jena 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 he could not withdraw the amount.
Modus Operandi
- The ‘Cloud-Fut’ is an online APP/ linked based company running a huge Ponzi/ MLM scheme fraudulently claiming to be a crypto mining company.
- 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 American accent.
- It claimed and also produced fake certificates of RBI to gain the trust of investors. It was claimed that Government of India has made a 10 years agreement with “Cloud Fut”.
- 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.
- 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.
- It was mainly running through Telegram Channel and WhatsApp groups.
- 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.
- ‘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.
- Further investigation is on to find out the mastermind and top bosses of this scam, the EOW said, in a press note.
“One Mobile phone containing many incriminating materials has been 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. have also been seized from the possession of the accuse. The investigation of the case is on,” the EOW added.
