Surveillance circular issued against 3 Chinese nationals in fraudulent loan application scam

At the request of the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Police, the Bureau of Immigration (BOI) has issued a surveillance circular against three Chinese nationals for their alleged involvement in an enforcement scam. mobile loan, police said on Sunday.

The three defendants were identified as Shen Zhenhua’s allies, Tony from Jiangsu, Quan Hongwei’s allies, Paul from Jiangsu, and Yang Haiying’s allies, Doris from Sichuan, China.

They are the mastermind and main defendant in a case filed against Kredit Gold loan app. This is the second case of illegal loan enforcement investigated by EOW. There are more than a lakh victims of Kredit Gold loan application across the country, many of them from Odisha, EOW officials said.

Officials suspect Chinese nationals are also running a similar scam in countries including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.

“They also have ties to the United States and Hong Kong. They are expanding their financial criminal network in African and Middle Eastern countries,” the EOW said.

The mastermind operates in India in collusion with many shell companies and Indians are appointed as directors of these companies. They also take the help of some unscrupulous managers of mobile phone companies, accountants/company secretaries, fintech companies, debt collectors/call centers, etc., a he declared.

Odisha Police also suspect that these defendants, along with other Chinese groups, are operating hundreds of illegal digital lending apps and extorting/abusing/mentally torturing thousands of innocent people, mostly from the lower middle class.

The EOW has informed that it will move Interpol through the appropriate channels for the extradition of these criminals to India and also to alert the law enforcement agencies of other concerned countries.

He has already arrested several people in connection with a fake lending app scam and twice wrote to Google to remove illegal apps from its Play Store.

He also called on RBI to impress Google for the early removal of illegal apps and asked the Registrar of Companies to investigate and take action against the alleged front companies.

Earlier, the Immigration Bureau issued a surveillance circular against Liu Yi, another Chinese national and the main defendant in another EOW police-filed case against the mobile loan app scam.