Pan-India crackdown on Rs 30K-cr transactions
Panaji: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Panaji zonal office, has arrested two brothers from Mumbai—Fahim Moin Hussain Sayed and Naim Mueen Sayyed—in connection with a money laundering investigation into a large-scale ‘digital arrest’ cyber frauds, including one in the state.
The victim, a senior citizen from Goa, was duped of around Rs 2.60 crore.
According to sources, the brothers are key accused in the multi-state cyber-fraud ring.
The ED arrests came as part of its PMLA probe into the alleged pan-India cyber frauds and ‘digital arrests’ involving transactions worth Rs 30,000 crore, official sources said on Monday.
The ED initiated its probe based on an FIR registered by the Goa Cybercrime Police. Fraudsters impersonating government officials placed the victim under a fabricated ‘digital arrest’, using forged documents and continuous video surveillance to coerce her into transferring funds into syndicate-controlled bank accounts.
Last month, the ED conducted search operations across multiple states.
It seized about Rs 1.5 crore in Indian currency, foreign currency worth Rs 2 crore, gold and jewellery valued at Rs 1.5 crore, a high-end vehicle, and other movable assets.
An investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) exposed an organised network designed to monetise cybercrime proceeds and siphon them abroad. Fraudsters initially funnelled victims’ money into first-layer “mule” accounts registered under individuals and dormant entities.
To hinder tracing, the funds were rapidly split and cycled through hundreds of accounts and a web of shell companies—typically newly incorporated firms posing as trading or commodity enterprises with no genuine business operations.
The layered money was re-introduced into the formal banking system via bulk cash-deposit machines (BNAs) before being routed to money-changing entities. Several of these forex companies, holding valid Full Fledged Money Changer (FFMC) licences, have been taken over or fronted by the syndicate.
According to the ED, these forex entities accepted the funds through banking channels against fake invoices and handed over equivalent amounts in foreign currency. In effect, Indian rupees were converted into US dollars and other foreign currencies, which were then physically transported, spent abroad, or siphoned out of the country—severing the audit trail from the original victims.
Agency officials said the money trail of the Goa case led to an “inter-connected” network of commodity, trading, travel and forex entities which undertook banking transactions worth more than Rs 27,850 crore and Rs 2,904 crore deposited in cash, including Rs 584.70 crore through 61,448 bulk note acceptance machine transactions at multiple locations in the country.
The bank accounts of these entities have been identified across as many as 300 cyber fraud victim complaints and 163 FIRs filed by police and other law enforcement agencies across 20 states and Union territories involving an aggregate reported loss of Rs 417.49 crore, they said.
The probe found that shell or dummy companies named drivers and employees living in single-room accommodations as their directors, a classic modus operandi in such cases, according to the ED. (With inputs from PTI)
