The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Wednesday initiated a process to freeze Rs 53.48 lakh of ‘Cloud-Fut’, an online Ponzi company. The entire frozen amount was in seven accounts. One accused- Nilesh Kar- was arrested in connection with the case by EOW earlier.
Kar was arrested based on the complaint filed by one Mahamanya Jena of Sahadebkhunta area in Balasore district. The complainant had alleged that Kar had induced him to invest in an App/website- ‘Cloud-Fut’ for earning extra money.
The EOW officials said that the complainant had invested Rs 2,13,038 between January and 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,” EOW said in a release.
How the Scam Happened
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. It also produced fake certificates of RBI to gain the trust of investors. It was also claimed that Government of India has made a 10 years agreement with “Cloud Fut”.
Total Investors Duped
Over 80,000 investors across the country were duped with a promise of multiplying their money in a very short period. At least 200 investors are from Balasore district alone.
It was mainly running through Telegram Channel and Whatsapp groups.
“‘Cloud-Fut’ has got all India ramification and has cheated lakhs of people across India in the name of Crypto Mining. It is actually running the online Ponzi scam in the name of Crypto Mining,” the EOW release added.