Manoj Kumar Laha, 47, who runs a paan shop in Odisha’s Bhadrak district, 120 km from the State capital Bhubaneswar, wondered every day how he could make more than ₹15,000 a month. Over the past decade, Laha had lost ₹1.22 lakh in chit funds, but he continued to hope for a windfall that would pull him and his family of six out of poverty. “We have a little land that we farm, but this isn’t enough if I want to educate my children [a girl and a boy] well,” he says.
In April this year, Laha faced another setback when he lost ₹10,000 ‘invested’ in a crypto token, a digital asset. He was told that all he had to do was deposit money through an app, and he would get a monthly income. He was also told he would get additional monetary benefits for recruiting more people to the scheme. Reluctant to risk it, he chatted with peers. “A number of small traders in Banta Chhakm [a road junction near the town headquarters] were talking about it and attending weekly meetings, so I thought I’d take a chance,” he says.
The crypto token was an alleged facade for an illicit multi-level marketing (MLM) Ponzi scheme promoted through Solar Techno Alliance (STA), with a ‘turnover’ exceeding ₹1,000 crore in the two years of its being, say the Odisha police. The group is not registered in India or abroad.
