The Economic Offence Wing of the Central Crime Branch police on Tuesday arrested a 39-year-old man for cheating over 2,000 investors in a multi-crore cryptocurrency trading and chain-link scheme. The accused, Ranganath D.S., launched an online company last year, called Digitechmark, which promised investors high returns.
He allegedly assured people that if they invested even ₹15,000 on his platform, he would be able to get them ₹1 lakh by December 2021 and ₹25 lakh by 2025. Those who invested ₹50,000 were promised ₹3 lakh by December 2021 and ₹2 crore by 2025.
“He claimed that he could make their principal grow by trading in the cryptocurrency, Tron,” said a CCB official. Tron is a blockchain-based decentralised platform designed to handle credit sharing, payment, etc., and share media content.
Ranganath convinced clients that Tron offered the fastest growth in the international market. He hired agents to market his company on social media to lure investors. As director of Digitechmark, he held speaking sessions on YouTube and conducted virtual meetings with potential clients.
Depending on the investment, he also offered clients additional benefits if they brought in new investors. “Trusting him, thousands of people from Bengaluru, Hubli, Dharward, Mysuru and Mangaluru invested crores of rupees into the company. The accused also issued DTM tokens (his company’s cryptocurrency ) to investors as a mark of their investment,” said the CCB.
A standard seven dropout from Chikkamagaluru, Ranganath worked as an office employee at a finance company for a few years before launching his own company and cryptocurrency to cheat people. “His company is unregistered,” the CCB officials said.
He has been booked under various sections of the IT Act and Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act along with criminal breach of trust and cheating under IPC.
