Bhubaneswar: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today arrested four persons, including two from Odisha, in connection with the Fiewin app-based online betting and gaming fraud.

The ED arrested the four persons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)-2002.

The arrested have been identified as Arun Sahu and Alok Sahu of Rourkela in Odisha, Chetan Prakash of Patna in Bihar, and Joseph Stalin of Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

The ED had initiated investigation into the fraud on the basis of an FIR registered by the Cossipore Police Station in Kolkata against unknown persons responsible for cheating through online gaming app Feiwin.

The investigation by the ED has revealed that a few Chinese nationals were operating the gaming app with the help and support of some Indian citizens.

The funds mobilized from the gullible online gamers through the Fiewin app were deposited into the bank accounts of various persons (called recharge persons) who had allowed the use of their accounts by the app owners in lieu of certain commissions, said the ED in a statement.

Arun and Alok were acting as recharge persons and the funds received in their bank accounts from the Fiewin app were converted into crypto currency. They deposited and laundered the crypto currency earned from the Fiewin app to the wallets of Chinese nationals on foreign crypto exchange namely Binance, it added.

Chetan Prakash, an engineer, played a key role in the money laundering activities by helping the recharge persons in conversion of the Indian Rupee into crypto currency (USDT). Joseph Stalin, a software engineer, helped Chinese national Pie Pengyun from Gansu province to become co-director of Studio 21 Pvt Ltd, a company owned by him, revealed the ED.

Pie Pengyun used the account of Studio 21 Pvt Ltd for bulk payout services related to the app which helped them gain confidence of gamers in the beginning and provoked larger bets from the app users. The funds used for payout services were received by Joseph Stalin as crypto currency in his Binance account from the wallets controlled by the Chinese handlers. He in turn converted the USDT crypto currency into Indian Rupee by selling the crypto through P2P mode on Binance.

The ED claimed that around Rs 400 crore was generated from the Fiewin app-based fraud and the amount was credited to eight Binance wallets of the Chinese nationals.

The arrested persons have been produced in a Special PMLA court in Kolkata. The court has sent the accused persons to ED custody for 14 days.