By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: The Cyber Crime Unit of CID, Crime Branch, Odisha hasarrested3 accused persons including 2 Nigerians who were involved in investment fraud from New Delhi.
This organized gang of cyber criminals was operating in the guise of investment in saffron business promising high returns. The arrested persons are (1) Christoper Chizobam aka Chizobam Krist, (2) Nnamdi Stanley Mbamalu aka German, both Nigerian Nationals and (3) Ms. Arti Gautam from New Delhi. Accused Arti opened bank accounts in her own name and in the names of others and shared these accounts with Christoper, who used them to transfer the fraudulently obtained money. Christoper was involved in collection of mule accounts to facilitate the receipt of the stolen money.
Nnamdi withdrew the cash from ATMs and handed it over another Nigerian. A person from Bhubaneswar had approached the Cyber Crime Unit, CID CB, that he was contacted through Facebook, then through WhatsApp and email in December, 2023by a fraudster impersonating as a former IAS officer from the Odisha Cadre. The person claimed that he was working at The World Bank in Washington, DC.
During the course of social media conversations, the fraudster impersonating as ex-IAS officer sent an email asking the victim to get involved in a project to supply saffron to the World Bank Headquarters. He asked the victim to contact the World Bank procurement department via email to express interest in supplying the saffron for their project.
The fraudster then introduced a supplier, who pretended as a Regional Manager at Organics Merchandise, a marketing agent for saffron farmers in India. They started the so called supply business with initial supply of 10 kg of saffron for testing and then went up to 110 kg as per the fake purchas eorder from the World Bank. The victim paid a total of Rs. 2,65,15,940/- (Rupees Two Crores Sixty Five Lakhs Fifteen Thousand Nine Hundred and Forty), through multiple transactions to various Indian bank accounts.
When the fraudster demanded more money, the victim realized that he had been cheated and complained to Cyber Crime Police Station, CID-CB. On hi complaint Case No. 10/2024dtd. 26.02.2024U/s 419, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 120-B, and 34 of the IPC read withSections 66-C and 66-D of the IT Act2000 was registered and investigated into.
A team led by Inspector Bibhu Ranjan Sundaray conducted a thorough investigation and successfully apprehended Ms. Arati Gautam in New Delhi. The subsequent clues led the team to the Nig erian Nationals Christoper Chizobam @ Chizobam Krist and Nnamdi Stanley Mbamalu @ German.Their involvement in other offences is being verified. During investigation, the following articles have been seized from the accused persons:
1) Mobile Handset -6
2) Laptop-2
3) Sim cards – 10
4) Dongle-1
5) Bank Account Passbook- 10
6) Debit Card-2
7) Aadhar Card-1
From the verification in the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) of I4C, Ministry of Home Affairs, it has come to be known that this gang of cyber criminals have been involved in a series of cyber frauds across the country. Their account numbers have been involved in around 94 cases covering 10 states across the nation.
Further verification is going on in different portals to ascertain their involvement in other cases too.
The Crime Branch team was whole heartedly supported by DCP, South West and DCP, Dwarka of Delhi Police. With the active participation of Special Teams of Delhi Police joint raids were conducted at various places in Delhi to apprehend these hardened criminals.
