Odisha EOW arrests 4th accused in online football betting racket

Bhubaneswar, April 17 (IANS) The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police has arrested another accused in the online football betting racket, which was operated by cyber scammers from China and Dubai, police said on Monday.

The police arrested Dileepkumar P. (35), a diploma in business management holder, from Thrissur, Kerala. He is the fourth accused to be arrested in the case.

He is the director of Kerala-based shell company Priwest Global Solution Pvt Ltd., which was utilized to channelize the ill-gotten money of this scam, said Dilip Tripathy, Superintendent of Police, EOW.

EOW could trace around Rs 19.49 crore which have been routed using the above shell company. Dileepkumar is also the founder of Omana Foundation Public Charitable Trust, Coimbatore, which was used to channelize the proceeds of this scam, he said.

Based on the complaints of about 800 duped investors of Odisha's Ganjam district, the EOW had registered the case against the online football betting company (www.18football.com).

Tripathy said the online betting company (www.18football.com) is suspected to have cheated thousands of people of over Rs 1,000 crore in the country, including Odisha. So far, the Odisha Police have been able to trace out transactions worth Rs 525 crore.

Earlier, two directors of a Kolkata-based shell company and one director of another shell company of Rajasthan were arrested, he said.

Besides, Look Out Circular was issued against Md. Saif, a Dubai-based operator and mastermind of this scam, Tripathy said.

He further informed that 18football.com, registered in Hong Kong, is a hybrid model of fraud where a ponzi scheme (multi-level marketing) is run online giving a name of football betting/ gaming App.

As the modus operandi of the fraud racket, investors were promised of giving lucrative benefits like three per cent daily compound return on investment, recharge bonus, referral bonus, extra bonus on the earnings of the downline members, salary bonus, daily withdrawal option, etc.

The fraud company was also provided a foreigner 'mentor' to assist the investors in betting. These mentors used to communicate through telegram or Apps only. Extra commission was offered for introducing new members in the app.

The scammers used multiple shell companies and their directors to route the ill-gotten money. They also used mule accounts for multi-layering of money transactions to confuse the law enforcement agencies.