Malang. A three-story house in the East Java town of Malang reportedly belonging to controversial businessman Wahyu Kenzo was barricaded with a police line tape on Thursday to support the ongoing money laundering investigation against him.

Wahyu, 35, whose real name is Dinar Wahyu Saptian Dyfrig, is accused of investment fraud and money laundering using a forex trading bot app that attracted thousands of users.

Police said he promised a payout of $2,000 a fortnight to any user with a certain amount of investment.

Since the Auto Trading Gold app was introduced in 2020, Wahyu has collected Rp 9 trillion ($596 million) from around 25,000 users, police said earlier this month. 

Wahyu was arrested on March 4 over complaints from the app users, some claimed to have lost billions of rupiah.

Malang Metropolitan Police chief Budi Hermanto confirmed the house on Jalan Basuki Rahmat belongs to Wahyu based on a formal notification from the National Police.

In addition to the house, the local police have so far seized three cars, two big motorcycles, and three limited edition Vespa scooters including the Christian Dior model with a tag price of around Rp 450 million from the suspect.

Police said that Wahyu has used Rp 1 trillion from the app users for personal spending, including supercars and a watch worth Rp 14 billion. But he claimed that those luxury items have been mortgaged to two businessmen.

Police recently named a new suspect identified as Raymond Enovan, who headed the app business operations in Malang.

The app creator identified as Chandra Bayu aka Bayu Walker remains at large.

Who is Wahyu?
The native of Surabaya was formerly known as a philanthropist who often won auctions for charity programs. 

Police said he began his business empire as a distributor of dairy products before developing the forex trading bot and building health and beauty company Pansaka.

Local media reports said that Pansaka was one of the sponsors of the famous football team Persebaya Surabaya. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, he often made public appearances distributing humanitarian assistance.