Probe Agency Arrests "Kingpin" Of ₹ 5,000-Crore Cyber Crime Case
Ashish Kakkar, a "cyber fraudster" and resident of Greater Kailash in Delhi, was taken into custody from Holiday Inn hotel in Gurugram on March 2, the central agency said in a statement.
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New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said it recently
arrested a Delhi-based man in connection with a money laundering investigation
linked to alleged duping of common people to the tune of about 5,000 crore
through cyber crimes and online gaming.
Ashish
Kakkar, a "cyber fraudster" and resident of Greater Kailash in Delhi,
was taken into custody from Holiday Inn hotel in Gurugram on March 2, the
central agency said in a statement.
A special
Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court sent him to ED custody till
March 12, the ED said. It did not say if he was subsequently remanded to
further custody of the ED or sent to judicial custody by the court.
The agency
alleged Ashish Kakkar was an "important kingpin of a syndicate involved in
generation, layering and siphoning of the proceeds of crime to the tune of ₹ 4,978
crore generated from various cyber crimes and online gaming ongoing all over
India during the period 2020-2024." The money laundering case stems from
police FIRs registered in Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and some others.
The agency said
its investigation into cyber crime cases has found that fraudsters use
different ways for cheating and generation of proceeds of crime such as
investment fraud, part-time job fraud, online shopping fraud and loan fraud.
Among these,
it said, the most prevalent modus operandi used for duping the general public
of their hard-earned money is to lure them into investing in fraudulent schemes
with the promise of handsome returns.
The
depositors invest their life savings and when they demand their return, the
fraudsters ask them to pay another sum in the guise of certain taxation or
processing fees etc., it said.
This
continues until the customer himself stops investing their fund and the fund
invested or transferred to the bank accounts provided by the fraudsters is
gone, the ED said.
A similar
criminal act was done in this case, the ED alleged, and proceeds of crime were
"layered and accumulated" in the bank accounts of the companies or
firms controlled by Ashish Kakkar and his associates and subsequently sent out
of India as foreign outward remittances.
Ashish
Kakkar and his associates created more than 200 companies (Kakkar is the
beneficial owner of these companies) in the name of his employees or based on
the KYCs of persons hired for the sole purpose of creation of dummy firms and
companies, the agency alleged.
Ashish
Kakkar, who himself is neither a director nor any office holder in these
companies, "controls" each transaction going on in the bank accounts
of these companies through his loyal associates, the ED alleged.
The probe
found that these dummy companies have substantial banking transactions but have
not filed their financial statements with the Registrar of Companies, the
agency said.
Ashish
Kakkar, it alleged, imported a number of consignments declaring high value
items like rose oil, solar panel machinery from Dubai, Hong Kong, China, etc.
in various Special Economic Zones of Mundra, Kandla etc. and subsequently
exported the same from the SEZs itself.
Ashish
Kakkar and others have sent outward remittances to the tune
of ₹ 4,978 crore against imports but no remittances have been
realised against export of goods from SEZ, it said.
In other
words, the ED said, the accused was involved in "circular-trading" by
way of import-export for the purpose of hawala or fraudulent transactions.
News is originally taken from: https://bit.ly/3PoNn0X
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