Lookout circular issued against Chinese national involved in mobile app loan scam
India Today
The Bureau of Immigration (BOI) on Tuesday issued a lookout circular against Liu Yi, a Chinese national and the key accused in mobile app loan scam.
Following a request by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch, the Bureau of Immigration (BOI) on Tuesday issued a lookout circular against Liu Yi, a Chinese national and the key accused in digital app loan fraud case.
EOW has booked Liu Yi under various sections of the IPC and Section 66 D of IT Act. The case was registered on April 21, 2022. Liu Yi used to run many illegal digital loan apps in India, such as KOKO Loan, JOJO Loan, Golden Lightning Loan, Silver Kredit Loan, Gold Cash loan, Speedy rupee Loan, Xpress credit Loan, Rupee Day Loan and others.
Surprisingly, one app alone has more than 1.5 lakh downloads. It is suspected that they duped people across the country, particularly targeting lower middle-class people who were in need of small loans especially during Covid times, a press release from EOW stated.
Liu Yi started his illegal business in India in 2019 from Bangalore. His parent company was Jianbing Technology in Hangzhou, China. A director at Omlette technology private limited, he indirectly controls other companies including IWT India, Ocean trading, Yellow Tune Technologies private limited and Techlite development private limited, stated the police release.
While EOW has already arrested five accused accomplices of the Chinese mastermind, there are at least two more Chinese people who used to assist the accused in the scam.
It is suspected that they are running illegal loan apps in other countries too, especially in Thailand.
EOW is in touch with various state police and has conducted raids in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi. More than Rs 6.57 crore has been frozen, said EOW.
