New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a charge sheet against two Chinese nationals accused of running a massive investment fraud during the Covid-19 pandemic, in which nearly ₹1,000 crore was siphoned off through shell companies. According to investigators, the fraud was executed through Shigoo Technology Pvt. Ltd., a firm owned and controlled by the accused, using a fake mobile application called “HPZ Tokens”. The app falsely promised high returns by claiming that public investments would be used for cryptocurrency mining.
A senior CBI officer said the investigation revealed that the fraud was part of a wider, coordinated cybercrime network led by foreign nationals. The syndicate allegedly operated multiple scams after the Covid lockdown, including fake loan apps, fraudulent investment platforms and bogus online job schemes targeting Indian citizens. The accused, identified as Wan Jun and Li Anming, travelled to India to establish the company and infrastructure before leaving the country and running the operations remotely. Both are currently absconding.
The agency said it dismantled the network’s local operations soon after taking over the case, arresting six individuals: Dortse, Rajni Kohli, Sushanta Behra, Abhishek, Mohammad Imdhad Husain and Rajat Jain. The investigation eventually uncovered a complex network of 27 people involved in the fraud, leading to a charge sheet against 30 entities, including the two Chinese nationals, 25 individuals and three companies.
According to the agency, Wan Jun served as a director of Jilian Consultants India Private Limited, a subsidiary of Chinese firm Jilian Consultants. With the assistance of Dortse, he allegedly created multiple shell companies, including Shigoo Technologies. These companies reportedly acted as conduits for laundering proceeds from large-scale organized cyber frauds. More than ₹1,000 crore is believed to have been moved through their accounts within months.
The CBI said the probe also exposed the sophisticated misuse of emerging payment aggregators, which helped the syndicate route illicit funds. Investigators describe the operation as a highly organized overseas criminal network that coordinated multiple cyber scams targeting Indian users during and after the pandemic.
