Pramesh Jain
The Economic Offence Wing of the Central Crime Branch on Tuesday arrested a 39-year-old man running a multi crore crypto currency trading and chain link scheme who has cheated over 2,000 investors in the last one year .
The accused has been identified as,Ranganath DS,who has launched Digitechmark company online last year and hired agents to market on social media and whatsapp groups to lure investors.
Senior officer,told reporters,we received many complaints from gullible people who stated in their complaint a person by name Ranganath DS who introduced himself as director of company and asked us to invest amount in his company and he would pay them in return with interest as profit.
Based on which many customers believing him and his company invested Crores of rupees in his company.
A special team was formed under the leadership of ACP,BR Venugopal and his team as PI,Mallesh Bolletin and team swung into action and with the technical inputs has secured the director of company who was absconding after getting getting investment.
During investigation the accused confessed the crime and it was revealed that the accused claiming to be the director of the company held talks on youtube and zoom meetings offering huge returns for the investment .
He assured people who make investments for Rs 15,000 to get Rs 1 lakh in one year and Rs 25 lakh in five years and returns and share of their investment.
He said that using their investment,he would trade tron coins through Wazirx (cryptocurrency) claiming that it has the fastest growth in the international market and the investors would fetch good sum of returns .
Depending upon the investment,Ranganath offered huge sum of returns and also additional benefits for the investors if they introduce new investors.
Trusting him thousands of people invested crores of rupees from cities including Bengaluru, Hubli Dharward,Mysuru and Mangaluru.
The accused also issued DTM tokens (his company crypto currency) to the investors as mark of their investment .
A detailed investigation by the team it is found that A 7th drop out from Chikkamagaluru,Ranganath worked as office staff at a finance company for few years to learn the tricks of the trade,before launching his own company and his own crypto currency to cheat people.
His company is unregistered and he was not paid any taxes or filed IT returns,the CCB officials said.
The accused has been booked under prize chit and money circulation scheme (banning),Act and also under various sections of IT Act along with criminal breach of trust and cheating under IPC.The police have also seized his bank accounts for further investigations.
Joint CP Crime,Sandeep Patil tweeted,By promising such unrealistic returns on investments, ponzi companies dupe people..CCB arrest one accused who induced thousands of victims assuring these returns.. also commission on getting new members..@CPBlr @BlrCityPolice he tweeted.
Commissioner of Police,Kamal Pant,tweeted,A multi-crore Ponzi scheme with links to #cryptocurrency trading busted!@CCBBangalore has arrested the director of a company accused of cheating more than 2,000 people.The accused operated a website (digitechmark.live) through an unregistered company.
The website promised high returns on investments and collected thousands of crores of rupees.The investors’ money was routed to a bank account from where it was later used to buy and sell #Tron,a cryptocurrency, on an exchange.
A case has been registered in the cyber-crime police station and further investigation is underway he said by tweeting.
Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant has appreciated Joint CP Crime,Sandeep Patil,DCP Crime-2,BS Angadi,ACP,BR Venugopal, PI, Mallesh S Bolletin and his team for the commendable and exemplary work in nabbing the director of company before he would escape and a suitable reward will be given to the team he added.
