STA Crypto-Ponzi scam: EOW arrests one more accused from Bhubaneshwar

Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) [India], August 17 : The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police has arrested a person from Bhubaneswar in connection with the Rs 1,000 crore STA Crypto-Ponzi scam, an official statement said.
The accused, identified as Ratnakar Palai aged 45 years was arrested on Tuesday.
The EOW, in a statement, said that 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.
“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.
STA (Solar Techno Alliance) was launched in September 2021.
Palai, an M Tech in IT from Karnataka University, Bangalore and claims to be an international speaker, entrepreneur and investment guru.
“He is also propaganda head/ social media influencer of STA in Odisha. He used to run a YouTube channel for wider publicity of this scheme,” it further said, adding that Palai is member of some other such dubious scams too which are under scrutiny.
He also runs an institute namely ‘Learn to earn”.
However, after the arrest of Gurtej and Nirod, he has either deleted or deactivated his social media accounts.
He had also visited Goa along with Nirod to participate in the STA celebration, the EOW said.