Nearly three weeks after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided six locations in Bonai, two individuals were arrested on Saturday in connection with a Rs400 crore online gaming fraud involving the Fiewin app.
The ED Kolkata arrested Arun Sahu and Alok Sahu from Bonai, along with Chetan Prakash from Bihar and Joseph Stalin from Tamil Nadu. They were charged under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for their involvement in duping online gamers. Arun and Alok, both in their mid-20s from Gogua village in Bonai, served as ‘recharge persons’, receiving funds transferred by gamers through the app.
The investigation, triggered by an FIR filed at the Cossipore police station in Kolkata, revealed that the Fiewin app, operated by Chinese nationals, was used to dupe unsuspecting online gamers. The app allowed funds to be routed into bank accounts of individuals who acted as intermediaries, also known as recharge persons, who in turn earned a commission. Arun and Alok used their bank accounts to receive these funds, which were later converted into cryptocurrency.
The ED found that the converted cryptocurrency was transferred to the Binance exchange, a global cryptocurrency platform. The funds were then sent to wallets controlled by Chinese nationals.
Chetan Prakash, an engineer from Patna, played a key role in the conversion of Indian Rupees into cryptocurrency (USDT). Meanwhile, Joseph Stalin, a software engineer from Chennai, aided Chinese national Pie Pengyun in becoming a co-director of Studio 21 Pvt Ltd, a company he owned. Stalin helped in bulk payouts, receiving cryptocurrency payments into his Binance account, which he later converted into Indian currency via P2P trading on Binance.
The total amount generated through this fraud was Rs400 crore, which was funneled into eight Binance wallets controlled by Chinese nationals. Authorities are continuing their investigation to track the remaining perpetrators and their illicit operations.
