Arrested Chinese national says he\'s only a translator but resume says CEO

Hyderabad: His official designation is Head of Operations for South East Asia for Beijing T Power company. A neatly drafted resume of his says he is the CEO of several companies like Linkyun Technology and Dokypay among others. But he claims he is just a translator who was sent to supervise his company's operations in India only because he spoke good English.

Chinese national Yah Hao -- arrested recently in connection with a multi-crore online gaming fraud -- continues to be a mystery to his investigators even as evidence on the Chinese firm’s dealings with several Indian companies has emerged along with details of employees hired by the company who played a substantial role in the fraud. More arrests in the case are expected shortly.

At the end of the four days of police custody of Yah Hao, evidence about money flow into small and big companies surfaced even as police filed another petition in a local court seeking his custody for a few more days for further questioning. Hao's lawyers have sought bail for him.

Sources told Deccan Chronicle that while Hao maintained that he was innocent and knew nothing about the alleged fraud, data retrieved from his Apple Mac laptop gave a blueprint of their India operations and the massive plans in place to expand their footprint in India in the online gaming arena.

The content of the laptop which is mostly in Mandarin also reveals the names of employees, their salaries, and the number of people to be hired as part of their expansion plans.

Sleuths have also stumbled upon evidence linking several Indian firms and payment gateways associated with the Chinese company. Data has been found about money flow into various companies and representatives of a few firms have been summoned for explanation. The police are on the lookout for some senior employees of Hao's firm who played a substantial role in the online gaming fraud. Some of them are reportedly on the run since Hao's arrest.

Hao's resume found on the laptop says he is the CEO/MD of companies like Linkyun and Dokypay among others which were established by him to expand operations. The Chinese firm was constantly establishing new companies and moving operations from one company to another. When quizzed about his role in the company, Hao claimed he was just a translator and had been sent to India as he speaks English. It is suspected that the Chinese firm entered India through a local consulting company and the sleuths are looking into whether it was in violation of the Companies Act.

However, there is a ton of data in Chinese, which sleuths suspect pertains to bank accounts and transactions. A Chinese translator, who is also a Chinese national, based in another South Indian city has been hired and tasked with retrieving the data and translating it into English. This process is expected to take a significant amount of time. The data on Hao's mobile phone is also in Chinese and it was found that he never used Whatsapp to chat with his contacts. Instead, he used WeChat, which is a Chinese multi-purpose messaging app.  The sleuths are going through the chats, which so far indicate that it was mostly about the company's transactions and related deals.

Details that emerged from Hao's interrogation during the last four days have been shared with the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax sleuths who are looking into money laundering and taxation angles.