Odisha police may question actor Govinda in Rs 1,000-crore pan-India online ponzi scam

Bhubaneswar, September 14

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha police’s crime branch may interrogate Bollywood actor Govinda in connection with a Rs 1,000-crore pan-India online ponzi scam.

This was said by EOW’s DSP Sasmita Sahu, who has been part of the team that is investigating the multi-crore ponzi scam involving Solar Techno Alliance (STA-Token).

The company, according to the EOW, was involved in illegally operating a pyramid-structured online ponzi scheme under the garb of crypto investment.

“We may issue summons to Govinda for appearing before the EOW for questioning or a team be sent to Mumbai for the purpose,” said Sahu, adding that the actor had attended STA’s grand function in Goa in July and promoted the company in some videos.

Stating that the EOW does not consider him as suspect or accused, another official said Govinda’s role in promoting the company is established from the video.

“If EOW finds that the actor’s role was limited to only endorsement of the product (STA-Token brand) as per their business agreement, then we will make him a witness in our case,” he said.

The EOW had last month arrested the ponzi firm’s country head Gurtej Singh and its Odisha chief Norod Das.

On August 16, the investigating agency had apprehended Ratnakar Palai, an up-line member of STA having huge number of members below him (known as down-line members in the MLM/pyramid-based schemes/scams).

An official statement by the EOW said the company had reportedly collected Rs 30 crore from 10,000 people in Odisha’s Bhadrak, Keonjhar, Balasore, Mayurbhanj and Bhubaneswar.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Immigration also issued a lookout circular against David Gez, a Hungarian national. He was heading the ponzi firm which allegedly lured people on social media to invest in crypto-currency and encouraged its members to enroll more investors.