Football Betting App Scam: Chinese National Involved In Hawala Transactions Worth Rs 2,300 Crore

A Chinese national has been accused of defrauding hundreds of people in Gujarat through a fraudulent football betting app.

The accused individual was involved in money laundering and hawala transactions worth Rs 2,300 crore.

A Look-Out Circular (LOC) has been issued against Wu Choumbo, the Chinese national, who had visited Gujarat in 2018 and left after a brief stay.

The state CID-Crime and Railways officials had discovered hawala transactions amounting to Rs 2,300 crore in the bank accounts of some persons who were arrested recently.

In March, they requested the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to conduct a separate investigation into the money laundering aspect.

Last year, several people approached the Gujarat police after losing money through the football betting app "Dani Data".

They were enticed by the promise of high returns and deposited money to place bets through the app.

However, the app abruptly shut down, resulting in the loss of their funds. An investigation conducted by the state CID found that a total of 1,175 individuals from Gujarat were victims of the scam, resulting in a loss of Rs 3.5 crore.

Following the investigation, the CID arrested ten individuals who were allegedly connected to both the betting app and the hawala scam.

According to a CID official cited in the PTI report, Wu Choumbo is believed to be the mastermind behind the fraudulent app.

During his stay in India, he became a director at TK Color Pvt Ltd.

After his exit, two Indian became its directors and allegedly conducted hawala transactions on his behalf in exchange for a commission, according to a CID official.

During the investigation of the betting scam, the probe agency found that Rs 2,300 crore had been transferred through hawala transactions from bank accounts linked to various shell companies established 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," the official said, PTI reported.

He added that further investigation in the betting scam is underway.