Cops pick up 17 in 245-crore international investment fraud
Times of India | 6 December 2024
Kolkata: Bengal Police's cyber units have busted an international investment fraud gang — run by chartered accountants from India but operating from Dubai — that has swindled Rs 245 crore in the past two months. Seventeen people were arrested and 2,500 mule accounts were traced to this gang on Thursday. Besides India and Dubai, the gang had a major presence in Sri Lanka.
Police said the modus operandi involved using mule accounts and place bets on online casino websites registered in the Caribbean islands of Curacao. The money was converted into cryptocurrency in Sri Lanka and sent to Dubai from Gujarat and Delhi. The gang operated through hundreds of mule accounts and SIM cards issued without any background check. According to ADG (cyber crime) Hari Kishore Kusumakar, the gang was using 704 of the 2,500 mule accounts in their possession, with the national cybercrime portal showing them involved in 1,530 odd complaints spread across 29 states.
The probe began two months ago after a Rs 1.1 crore investment fraud was reported in the Bidhannagar City Police area. The complainant in this case was asked to download a fake app from a phishing website, apparently managed by a well-known Indian wealth management company.
Of the 17 arrested, two were arrested from Muzaffarpur, seven from a five-star hotel in Kolkata and another six from an office in south Kolkata. Among those arrested was an employee of a private bank's Nagerbazar branch. The gang was led by three — all in police net — Indian nationals settled in Dubai. They formed the gang after meeting at a casino in Nepal. They have been identified as Abhishek Bansal, a CA from Siliguri, Mayank Chaudhury, a resident of the Kutch area but hailing from Bihar, and Amit Jindal from Faridabad.
Te gang would register fake partnership firms and open multiple current accounts in connivance with bank employees. The account details, along with linked mobile numbers, were shared with the kingpins in Dubai. They also activated international roaming services on the connected SIM cards so that OTPs could be received from Dubai.
"All these mule accounts were used to place bets on online casino sites registered in Curacao. Among the betting sites were onthebet99.com, allpanelexch.com and diamondexchgg.com, among others," said Kusumakar.
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