HYDERABAD: The Cyberabad police on Friday arrested a Chinese national from Delhi for illegally running moneylending apps. Yi Bai alias Dennis, a native of Jiangxi in Shanghai, was managing at least 11 such apps offering small loans to individuals between 20 and 40 years at extremely high interest rates.
Cyberabad police commissioner V C Sajjanar said that prime accused is another Chinese national identified as Zixia Zhang. He is currently in Singapore. “None of the 11 apps had tie-ups with non-banking finance companies (NBFC). The accused gave loans using their own resources. We are looking into how the accused got the money they lent,” Sajjanar said.
Though Zhang is CEO of the holding company, Dennis, who has been in New Delhi since February on a business visa, had been handling the operations in India as the chief operating officer (COO).
Dennis is the second Chinese national to be arrested by the Telangana police in cases related to online fraud. In October, officials arrested a Chinese man from Delhi for illegally running betting apps and duping Indians of crores of rupees.
Investigating officials had suspected the hand of Chinese national in the loan app case from day one as both betting racket and the loan apps had similar operations. Both used digital wallets extensively to move money and both used Indians as fronts.
Police also arrested another six Indians on Friday, two of who were based in Hyderabad, three in Bangalore and one in Delhi. In all, 15 people have been arrested in the case so far. The Indians were largely responsible for making blackmailing and threatening calls to people who were not able to pay up after taking loans.
Sajjanar said that among the arrested, Satyapal from Delhi and Anirudh Malhotra and Richie Hemanth Seth from Hyderabad, were operating four call centers in Gurgram and Hyderabad. During raids, police also seized Rs 2 crore cash and have frozen bank accounts of the various companies linked to the apps.
According to the police, Zhang and another Indian man identified as Umapathi started instant financing operations in December 2019. Later, they expanded the business by starting different companies in different parts of the country.