STA Crypto-Ponzi scam: Bureau of Immigration issues look out circular against Hungarian national for deceiving investors

Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], August 20 : The Bureau of Immigration (BOI) has issued a look-out circular (LoC) against a Hungarian national and head of a crypto-Ponzi firm who is allegedly involved in deceiving investors of their money.
32-year-old David Gez, a Hungarian national is the head of a mega Crypto-Ponzi scam namely STA Token.
The firm, STA Token is accused of operating a Ponzi business and collecting around Rs 1,000 crore deposits from two lakh people across the country without any authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India, it said.
Gez entered India twice in 2022-23 on a tourist visa and stayed in India for about 25 days travelling to various places like Odisha, Goa, Punjab, Jharkhand and Delhi, the EOW said.
The first time he had travelled to India via USA and Turkiye and the second time via Poland. In Odisha, he travelled to Bhubaneswar and Bhadrak.
Gez has deleted his Instagram account after registration of the case but his Indian associates are still issuing Youtube videos using his AI-generated picture and voice, the EOW said.
According to the rules of the Ministry of external affairs, indulging in business and promotion activity is not allowed for those in the country with tourist visas.
EOW would be reporting this fact to MEA for necessary action in addition to the legal action in the current case.
The involvement of a second foreigner, a Dutch national, in this scam, is under scrutiny. Some top-line members of this scam are still indulging in the propaganda (through YouTube, Whatsapp Group etc.) and continuing to add innocent investors below their chain. Their activities are under surveillance and action will be taken against them.
(EOW) of Odisha police has unearthed a pan-India cryptocurrency-based Ponzi scam worth more than Rs 1000 crore earlier on August 7 and has so far arrested Gurtej Singh Sidhu and Nirod Das, the country and state heads of STA Token respectively, from Rajasthan Bhadrak and Ratnakar Palai from Bhubaneshwar.
Palai is an important and up-line member of STA, having a huge number of members below him (known as down-line members in pyramid-based schemes, as per the EOW.
“He is very close to Gurtej Singh and Nirod Das, the India and Odisha chief of the Ponzi company.
The Solar Techno Alliance (STA) has more than 2 lakh members (pan India) mainly in the states like Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Assam,” it added.