The Enforcement Directorate conducted raids at seven places across four cities in connection with a Rs 800 crore scam pertaining to online forex trading through the OctaFx app and website.
A probe revealed how investors were duped using mule accounts to transfer money illegally, URL masking to hide the money trail and that the money laundering network extended to Spain.
The case came to light when a FIR was lodged in Pune accusing some individuals of defrauding investors by luring them with huge profits through OctaFX. The investigation revealed that OctaFX and OctaFx India Pvt Ltd were running a foreign exchange business in India without the permission of the Reserve Bank of India.
Following raids on June 13 across Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Gurugram, it was found that money deposited by investors on the OctaFX platform was first deposited in fake accounts and then transferred to the escrow account of an unauthorised payment aggregator called Dinero Payment Services.
Further, the money trail was hidden by using fake KYC and payment gateways of shell companies posing as fake e-commerce companies, with transactions being shown under the guise of online shopping, refund, vendor payment and chargeback.
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The probe agency also found that the URLs of payment links were masked to mislead banking and regulatory agencies about the rerouting of funds of illegal sources.
Among the assets attached and seized by the probe agency worth over Rs 160 crore were properties in Spain.
