The Odisha Economic Offences Wing (EOW) is going to question Govinda in connection with a Rs 1,000 crore pan-India Online Ponzi Scam probe.
The authorities said that the Solar Techno Alliance (STA-Token) with an online presence in several countries was illegally operating a pyramid-structured under the scam in the garb of crypto investment.
Bollywood actor Govinda’s name has been highlighted to be questioned by EOW in the Online Ponzi Scam. The actor had reportedly endorsed the company’s operations in a few promotional videos.
Sasmita Sahu, DSP EOW Bhubaneswar shared details about the same and said, “After receiving intelligence from higher courts we have started the investigations against STA, as per the allegation the STA has launched its own token, named STA token, and which has been promoted at the local level in bhadrak as a ponzi scheme or multi-level marketing scheme in which people are asked to join STA by adding members under them, so the allegations said it’s a chain system in which members get benefits and get lucrative returns on adding new members in their down line. The initial inquiry was conducted by EOW Bhubaneswar and the allegations proved to be true. Mr. Nirodh kumar das of bhadrak as the odisha head of STA and he has added more than 5/6 thousand members in the name of STA making an office in bhadtak. He conducts meetings to induce members to be part of STA to motivate them. The company’s country and Odisha heads, Gurtej Singh Sidhu and Nirod Das, respectively, were arrested on August 7. Ratnakar Palai, an important and up-line member of STA having huge number of members below him (known as down-line members in the MLM/pyramid-based schemes/scams), was nabbed on August 16.”
Adding, he said, “The Bureau Of Immigration also issued a lookout circular (LOC) against David Gez, 32, a Hungarian national who headed a company. on August 19. The EOW is said to have also learned about the involvement of a second foreigner, a Dutch national, in the scam. Investors were lured on social media to invest in cryptocurrency and encouraged to enroll more investors under them. We have arrested Nirod Kumar Das and Raghunath Palei from Odisha in the concerning matter.”
“The company also offered an incentive to members to build the networks, sources said. During the investigation, we came to know that they were conducting a mega event to where Bollywood star Govinda was invited as a chief guest on 30th of July 2023. A team of EOW left for Goa where the event took place. We are trying to contact the people who are somehow connected in the STS and as Govind has been invited there as a chief guest we want to take his view on it. And who the person has contacted him for the mega event. Then we could be able to get more information from him” Sahu added.
