ED freezes 30 bank accounts in money laundering case linking QFX Trade Ltd

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen movable properties in the form of more than 30 bank account balance of some shell companies to the tune of Rs 170 crore following a raid conducted two days ago in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana in connection with a case of QFX Trade Ltd, the agency said on Thursday.

The action was taken after the ED's Chandigarh Zonal Office conducted search operations on February 11 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 at various locations in Delhi, Noida, Rohtak in Haryana and Shamli in Uttar Pradesh as part of an ongoing investigation in the case of QFX Trade Ltd and others running multi-level marketing scheme (MLM) under the guise of forex trading through their Directors Raiender Sood, Vineet Kumar and Santosh Kumar and one of the mastermind Nawab Ali alias Lavish Chaudhary.

ED initiated investigation on the basis of multiple FIRs registered by Himachal Police against QFX company which had defrauded many investors through a fraudulent forex trading scheme.

"QFX company and its Directors were running an unregulated deposit scheme, promising high returns on investments to the investors," said the ED.

"The agents of QFX group of companies ran MLM Scheme under the name of QFX investment plan, wherein they create websites and apps social media ads to attract investors promising higher rate of return in the name of forex trading."

As per the agency, the directors of the company and various agents working on commission of QFX and YFX hatched a conspiracy and ran an unregulated deposit scheme to lure people to invest in the investment scheme with 5 per cent return per month on investment made by investors.

During investigation, ED said, it was revealed that post FIR against QFX Trade Ltd and its Directors was registered by Himachal Police, the name of the QFX scheme was changed to YFX (Yorker Ex) with same modus operandi duping innocent investors by luring high rate of returns under the guise of forex trading In addition to QFX more fraudulent investment schemes are being run and controlled by Nawab Ali alias Lavish Chaudhary such as BotBro, TLC Coin, Yorker FX projecting them as forex trading apps and websites.

"Various events are being organized in India and Dubai to lure more customers," stated the ED.

ED investigation further revealed that multiple bank accounts of Rax Box Private Limited, Capter Money Solutions Private Limited and Tiger Digital Services Private Limited are being used for collection of funds from investors.

ED said that the searches were conducted on the office and premises of directors of these companies, which revealed that these shell companies were being used by the masterminds of QFX and YFX scheme for receiving deposits from public for investment in QFX and YFX in the name of giving high returns claiming that returns are generated from forex trading.

During the course of search operations, movable properties in the form of more than 30 Bank account balances of these shell companies to the tune of Rs 170 crore have been frozen as directors of the company could not explain the source of funds.

"Searches were also conducted on some of the agents of QFX and YFX. Cash amount of more than Rs 90 lakh were seized from one of the premises of one of the agents. Various incriminating documents and digital devices have been recovered and seized during the search operation," it added.