Bhubaneswar: The economic offences wing (EOW) of the state crime branch on Thursday arrested a key accused in a multi‑crore crypto‑Ponzi scam. The accused was identified as Chitta Ranjan Mohanty (56) from Gopalpur in Jagatsinghpur district.He was booked in Oct 2023 under multiple sections of the IPC, the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978, the Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (OPID) Act, 2011, and the IT Act, 2000. Mohanty was produced before the designated court under the OPID Act in Cuttack the same day. “The case originated from a complaint filed by Swagat Kumar Nayak of Puri, who alleged he was cheated of Rs 85,000 by promoters of a Ponzi firm, including Sandeep Choudhary, Basant Kumar, and Manoj Kumar Patnaik,” an EOW official said.Investigations revealed that Mohanty, along with associates such as Shankar Sarkar, was instrumental in running the illegal scheme. “The accused persons were running illegal money circulation schemes in the form of a pyramid Ponzi scheme by adding more and more numbers of people below them (known as down line members) by tempting/fooling them with very high returns in a very short time,” the EOW official said.The scam has a staggering footprint–more than 8,000 investors in Odisha alone and nearly 2.5 lakh members nationwide, spread across Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Haryana, Gujarat, Bihar, and Jharkhand. “The total money involved is estimated at over Rs 200 crore,” the officer said.According to investigators, Mohanty was one of the “prime members” of the network, actively promoting the scheme by organizing meetings in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. He allegedly collected crores from gullible investors through bank accounts and cash deposits. “Investigation also disclosed that total Rs 19.32 lakh has been transferred to the two personal accounts of accused Chittaranjan Mohanty directly from the account of the investors,” the officer said.Earlier, two other accused, Sandeep Choudhury and Shankar Sarkar, were arrested in the same case. Officials said the probe is still underway and more arrests are likely as the agency tracks the money trail and identifies other conspirators.