The ED launched a money laundering investigation into the scam on the basis of a first information report (FIR) registered at Pune’s Shivaji Nagar police station. (PTI Photo)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted search operations at various locations in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi in connection with a case related to illegal online forex trading through international brokers, namely the OctaFx trading app and octafx.com.
During the searches, bank funds to the tune of Rs 2.7 crore have been frozen and various incriminating documents and digital devices have been seized, the ED said on Saturday.
The ED launched a money laundering investigation into the scam on the basis of a first information report (FIR) registered at Pune’s Shivaji Nagar police station. The FIR was lodged against several people for their alleged involvement in luring people with high returns and duping them under the pretext of forex trading through the OctaFx trading platform.
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The OctaFx online trading app and website are operating in India in association with India-based entity M/s OctaFx India Private Limited. According to the ED, the app and its website have not been authorised by the RBI to deal in forex trading. The trading platform is widely promoted on social networking sites and follows referral-based incentive models for acquiring users to their platforms.
The ED has said it has emerged in the investigation that multiple accounts of different Indian banks were being shown to investors/users on the app and website for collecting funds in the guise of facilitating forex trading.
The app and the website manipulated trade activities and information shown on its platform ultimately resulting in net loss to the traders. The said accumulated funds, after defrauding these investors/users, were transferred to multiple e-wallet accounts or bank accounts of dummy entities, the agency statement reads.
This is how M/s OctaFx lndia Pvt Ltd, M/s OctaFx, and their entities have cheated investors in the guise of forex trading thereby earning a profit of more than Rs 500 crore from the Indian region, the ED has stated. A portion of these funds were allegedly layered through a web of complex transactions with the help of shell entities and remitted abroad to its related entities in the garb of bogus freight services, import of services, etc.
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The anti-money laundering agency so far has attached assets to the tune of Rs 35 crore in the form of cryptocurrencies, bank balances, gold coins etc.
The ED’s probe also exposed a network of chartered accountants and professionals, who gave fake certificates of remittances and facilitated bank accounts/companies for the layering of such funds. It has also been revealed that the entire process of reflecting account numbers of dummy entities, managing the funds collected in these accounts and diversion of the same are being managed and operated by the owner of OctaFx group entities based in Spain, Russia, Georgia and Dubai, the central agency has stated.
M/s. OctaFx has also hired several Indian individuals working in Spain/Russia for operating the OctaFx trading platform and inducing Indian citizens to invest in forex trading through OctaFx, the ED has said.
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