Visakhapatnam cybercrime police arrested four individuals for running a crypto-based MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) scam under names such as UMT, UBIT, Ultraverse, and MMMC.
The accused were identified as:
Nagireddy Sudheer Naidu – MK Gardens
Mangi Soma Raju (41) – Marripalem
Gurala Srikanth – Chinagadili
Allipalli Venkata Ramesh Babu – Seethammadara
Authorities seized multiple crypto apps including SafePal, Binance, CoinDCX, and Coinstore, along with numerous user IDs, passwords, and login credentials.
Under the guidance of Visakhapatnam City Police Commissioner Shanka Brata Bagchi, action was taken against individuals who promoted fraudulent online crypto investment schemes. These schemes falsely guaranteed high returns, luring unsuspecting investors.
Police said the scam operated like a Ponzi scheme: investors were promised a daily ROI of 0.4% for 500 consecutive days, with investments ranging from USD 50 to USD 10,000. There was no legitimate business or product backing the returns. Instead, payouts to earlier investors came from funds contributed by new investors.
The scheme relied on referrals, with a 50-level deep chain structure offering higher commissions for direct referrals. Cybercrime police have remanded the accused to judicial custody, and further investigation is ongoing to track additional participants and recover investor funds.
