Chinese national wanted in betting app case also involved in Rs 2,300 crore hawala transactions: Gujarat CID

Ahmedabad: A Chinese national who is accused of duping hundreds of people in Gujarat by floating a fraudulent football betting app was also involved in money laundering and hawala transactions worth Rs 2,300 crore, an official of the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) said here on Thursday.

A Look-Out Circular (LOC) has also been issued against Wu Choumbo, the Chinese national, who had visited Gujarat in 2018 and left after a brief stay. After finding hawala transactions worth Rs 2,300 crore from the bank accounts of some persons who were arrested recently, CID-Crime and Railways officials in March had requested the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to conduct a separate probe from the money laundering angle, said the official. Last year, several people approached Gujarat police after losing money through the football betting app "Dani Data". Lured by promises of high returns, they had placed bets through the app and deposited money.

The app, however, shut down soon and the victims lost their money. An investigation by the CID revealed that a total of 1,175 persons from Gujarat lost Rs 3.5 crore in this scam. First Information Reports (FIRs) were also registered in other states including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar against the app operators for duping people, said the official. The CID subsequently arrested ten persons allegedly linked to the betting app as well as the hawala scam. Hawala transactions facilitate money transfer through informal channels, often in an illegal manner.

Wu Choumbo is believed to be the mastermind behind the fraudulent app, said the official. During his stay in India, Wu became a director at TK Color Pvt Ltd. After his exit, two Indians became its directors and also allegedly carried out hawala transactions on his behalf for commission, the CID official said. "While investigating the betting scam, we learnt that hawala transactions of Rs 2,300 crore had been carried out from the bank accounts of many shell firms floated by the accused.

This indicated that apart from collecting money through the betting app, the accused were also laundering money received from other sources and sending it to other countries through hawala," he said, adding that further investigation in the betting scam was on.