EOW arrests Mum man for ‘fraud’ Koko App link

Bhubaneswar: The economic offences wing (EOW) of the state crime branch on Thursday arrested the managing director of a company for his alleged link with fraud Koko loan App, which has allegedly cheated many loan applicants of crores of rupees in the state and outside.
The accused was identified as Ram Shriram Pathade, managing director of Mahagram Payments Private Limited. Pathade, who belongs to Mumbai, was arrested from Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi. The CISF and Delhi police helped the EOW arrest Pathade, who was allegedly trying to flee the country.
During investigation, the EOW came to know that Pathade was the director in some other companies — Sarsewa Simplified Innovations Limited, Mahagram Foundation, Finnovity Global Payments Private Limited and Express Digital Money Private Limited.
“We found suspicious transactions between the bank accounts of Pathade’s companies and Koko loan company. Koko App used the bank accounts of Pathade’s companies to carry out its illegal loan business. Mahagram company had opened 1,058 virtual accounts, which have been blocked by us,” EOW’s deputy inspector general J N Pankaj said. Recently, the EOW arrested Tarun Dudeja and Mohammad Javed Saifi, owners of two shell firms for their alleged links with the App.
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