The CBI has filed a chargesheet against 30 accused, including two Chinese nationals who were alleged masterminds of the HPZ Token Investment fraud case, in which over ₹1,000 crore was siphoned off through shell companies during the Covid-19 outbreak, the agency said on Wednesday.
The agency has alleged that Shigoo Technology Pvt. Ltd, owned and controlled by Chinese nationals, allegedly cheated the public during the Covid lockdown using a fake mobile application titled "HPZ Tokens", claiming that investments would be used for cryptocurrency mining and would yield very high returns.
"Within three months, crores were collected and diverted by the fraudsters," the agency said. The syndicate was the fountainhead of scams through which gullible citizens were cheated using a host of loan applications, fake investment apps and platforms offering bogus online job offers.
According to the CBI, the two Chinese nationals — Wan Jun and Li Anming — had come to India to set up the company and infrastructure, following which they left the country and operated the company remotely from abroad. Both never joined the investigation and remained fugitives.
During the probe, sleuths found that this was not an isolated incident but part of a large, well-coordinated cybercrime network operated by foreign nationals. This syndicate was responsible for several other cyber scams targeting Indian citizens in the post-Covid period using loan apps, fake investment apps and platforms offering bogus online job offers.
Investigation has revealed that these shell companies became the conduit to collect and launder the proceeds of crime of major organised cyber frauds.