New Delhi [India], June 7 : The Directorate of Enforcement's Delhi zonal office has conducted search operations against Prafful Gupta and others at various locations in Delhi, Haryana and Kanpur in connection with online fraud committed on a foreign national.
The searches were carried out on Thursday.
ED said in a statement that it initiated an investigation based on an FIR registered by the CBI against Prafful Gupta and other accused persons.
As per the FIR, the accused persons contacted the victim and convinced her to transfer the investments held in a bank to a cryptocurrency account, claiming that the existing account was not safe.
In the statement, ED alleged that the caller gained unauthorised remote access to her computer and created a cryptocurrency account in the name of the victim using her mobile number and email ID.
Then, she was advised to transfer USD 400,000 to the said cryptocurrency account, to which she complied.
"However, when she logged into her account later, she found her money was not there. Once the defrauded amount of USD 400,000 was transferred to a crypto account from the bank account of the victim, the same was converted into crypto currency, and the same was further transferred to other accused persons," said the ED.
The FIR named Prafful Gupta, Sarita Gupta, Kunal Almadi, Gaurav Pahwa, Rishabh Dixit and "unknown others" as accused.
The ED investigation further revealed that the cryptocurrency from the account of the victim was transferred to Prafful Gupta and his mother, Sarita Gupta, after multiple layers.
Thereafter, the crypto currency was sold and the money was transferred to fake dummy entities in India.
"The fake/dummy entities, after receiving money from the crypto wallets, further transferred the funds to thousands of accounts with fake KYCs. Investigations revealed that part of the amount was transferred to the account of a Gurgaon-based fintech company, which was aiding in the layering of the proceeds of crime without obtaining any KYC of such ultimate beneficiaries," said the central enforcement agency.
During the search operations, various digital pieces of evidence have been seized. Proceeds of crime being FDs (fixed deposits) with banks amounting to Rs 7.25 crore have been frozen and jewellery valuing Rs 35 lakh has been seized. Further investigation is under progress.
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