The Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Cherthala, on Wednesday sent two Taiwanese men in police custody for eight days in connection with an online fraud that led to a doctor couple from Cherthala in Alappuzha losing ₹7.65 crore last year (2024).
The duo—Wang Chun-Wei, alias Sumoka, (26) and Shen Wei-Haw, alias Krish, (35) both belonging to Taoyuan in Taiwan—will be questioned by the District Crime Branch (CB), which is investigating the case.
The duo had earlier been arrested by the Ahmedabad police for their involvement in a similar online fraud. The CB, which obtained their custody, brought them to Alappuzha on Tuesday.
Five held
Last year, investigators arrested five people, including Bhagawan Das from Karnataka and Nirmal Jain from Rajasthan and three Keralites, in connection with the case. The Taiwanese reportedly coordinated the scam across multiple locations in the country.
According to officers, the doctor couple fell victim to an online share trading investment scam. The perpetrators, pretending to work for Invesco Capital and Goldman Sachs, lured the victims with promises of high returns. Once the couple transferred money, the fraudsters sent them a fake statement claiming their internal equity account had a balance of ₹39,72,85,929, including investment returns. They then urged the victims to increase their investment to ₹15 crore. However, when the couple refused, the fraudsters informed them that their internal equity account had been frozen.
To withdraw the investment, the preparators demanded an additional ₹2 crore and threatened to initiate legal action against them. This prompted the couple to file a police complaint, leading to the ongoing investigation.
