New Delhi/Roopnagar, May 20 (IANS): Punjab police in Roopnagar district has arrested five persons for cheating a hotel owner on pretext of doubling the money in few days.

SSP of Roopnagar/Ropar Akhil Chaudhary said to media, accused Ikshit of Sirsa and Ankit from Bhiwani and Gurpreet Singh, Sachinpreet Sindhu and Rakesh Kumar of Mohali had been arrested and Rs 8.2 lakh has been recovered from them.

The police have registered a case and investigation is underway.

Akhil Chaudhary said, Munish Sethi, a resident of Morinda, Punjab had filed a complaint that the accused, have offered him high returns against his online investment in Espian Global Company (not related to ESPN Media) after which the action was taken and arrests were made.

The police initially said the accused ran a proxy of global gaming company but sources within police have revealed that during investigation, it came to the notice that Espian global is run by the same person as the accused in Speak Asia case - Ram Niwas Pal.

But sources say the random checking of the company documents say that it has camouflaged itself in an attempt to appear legitimate, Espian Global provides three corporate addresses on their website; one each in the UK, Poland and Malaysia which investigators feel are fake and in England the company's ID is registered in the name of some other person and the address is of a hotel.

The accused in the Speak Asia were arrested by Delhi Police for allegedly duping investors of thousands of crores in 2013. Speak Asia was registered in Singapore but the company had operations only in India.

Ram Niwas is well-known in his circle for his innovative modus operandi and a decade ago he had smartly structured his Ponzi schemes to exploit the gaps in the various financial-sector regulations in the country.

The modus operandi of the accused, as per police sources, is that they lured people in investing into cryptocurrency, such as Libracoin and guaranteed huge return to the investors. People out for quick money fall in their trap and lose their hard earned money. The cryptocurrency is illegal in the country and the RBI has been issuing advisory so that people do not fall in the trap.

Ram Niwas Pal who is said to be the mastermind has been notorious and was accused in Speak Asia case and has many accomplices. Sources within the investigation team said that Pal through his accomplice was running the cryptocurrency ring and duping people by running fake websites and YouTube channels to lure people in the fraudulent company.

The names of these people have come to light during investigation and that Pal is dead, but that turned out to be a hoax. The promoters of Speak Asia are under the scanner of enforcement agencies and also the investigating agencies but somehow they managed to establish a new entity and proceeded to do a new fraud.

Who operates if Ram Niwas is dead? Sources said that now the face of the company to run the Ponzi crypto scheme is Karan who has already faced a few charges of scams. According to sources, the investigators have identified a person known as Nanda in North India and Harsh as the main operators of fake virtual currency including Libra Coin.

Fake videos and websites are a testimonial to the fact how these operators manipulated and lured people. After gathering all proofs, the enforcement agencies would soon initiate legal action against top officials and operators of the Scheme.

The RBI has alerted enforcement agencies but the fake and Ponzi Crypto continue to thrive in the country and innovators extraordinaire have been giving a tough time to enforcement agencies with their unique modus operandi.

The Punjab government has already initiated an SIT into ponzi schemes, sources said.