Dikhyaa Mohanty 
On August 7, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Police said that it has exposed the largest crypto-ponzi scheme in India. Gurtej Singh Sidhu, the director of “STA Crypto token”‘s India activities, was taken into custody by the EOW team in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, as part of the raid. The leader of STA (Solar Techno Alliance) in Odisha, Nirod Das of Bhadrak, was also detained by the EOW team. The EOW authorities claim that STA has more than 2 lakh members throughout India, and that the total amount of money involved (Pan India) in the fraud is believed to be above Rs 1000 crore.
The EOW discovered that STA was collecting deposits without any permission from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or any relevant authorities. STA also uses Iceland to host its website, but all of its ‘business’ is restricted to India. Senior EOW officials claim that STA celebrated in style last week in a luxury hotel in Goa. Over a thousand up-line members, many of them from Odisha, came to the gathering.
The EOW had received intelligence that a cryptocurrency-based Ponzi scam is operating in Odisha, especially in Bhadrak, Balasore, Bhubaneswar, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, Kendrapada, and Keonjhar districts. Following, these intels, the EOW initiated a probe that led to these arrests and exposed the biggest crypto-ponzi scam running in India.
The officials added that the bank account of Odisha head of STA, Nirod Das, reflected transactions (credit & debit) to the tune of more than Rs 30 crore. Additionally, there were records of huge cash deposits in his accounts indicating that lots of black money may have been routed in this scam. Subsequently, all the accounts have been frozen.
