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Frauds
A 38-year-old Indian national has been sentenced to 90 months in federal prison for his role in an "imposter scam" that defrauded 11 victims, including elderly people in five US states, according to an official statement. Ligneshkumar H. Patel pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and financial institution fraud and two counts of wire fraud. The judge ordered him to pay more than USD 2 million in restitution, the Department of Justice said in a statement on Wednesday. "Imposter scams are international conspiracies often using US-based money mules to meet victims in person to take their money, said US Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft. The US Attorney's Office prosecutes these fraudsters aggressively, and anyone who targets elderly victims will face certain justice." According to court documents, Patel drove to the residences of at least 11 elderly victims in five states to steal their assets totalling USD 2,231,216.99. Patel worked within a major conspiracy that
Industrialist Anil Ambani has moved the Supreme Court challenging an order of the Bombay High Court which upheld the State Bank of India's (SBI) decision classifying his and Reliance Communications' accounts as fraud. The matter is yet to be listed for hearing. The High Court had on October 3 dismissed Ambani's plea challenging the SBI decision and said there was no merit in the plea. The SBI had last year classified the accounts as fraud, alleging misappropriation of funds by entering into transactions that violated the terms of loans extended by it. Ambani moved the HC, arguing that the bank had not followed the principles of natural justice as it did not grant him a hearing. Certain documents, based on which the classification orders were passed, were not provided to him initially and were furnished only after six months, the petition claimed. The bank this year lodged a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which searched premises linked to Reliance ...
The Delhi Police has busted a pan-India stock market investment fraud that allegedly duped victims of crores through fake companies and fabricated trading platforms, an official said on Monday. Three people, including Sunil Kumar, the director of a shell firm and a resident of Fatehabad, Agra, and Vishal Choure and his wife, both residents of Thane, Maharashtra, allegedly linked to another bogus entity, have been arrested, they said. Police said the arrests were made during coordinated raids conducted in Ballabgarh (Haryana) and Thane (Maharashtra), leading to the unravelling of a multi-layered racket operating under the guise of GTR Electronics Pvt. Ltd. and Udyam Women Empowerment Foundation. The syndicate allegedly ran online financial traps, fake pre-IPO schemes and fraudulent forex trading platforms, cheating people across several states. The investigation began with a complaint from a man who lost Rs 1.6 crore after being lured by a woman he had met through social media, who
Four persons allegedly involved in arranging mule bank accounts for funnelling and laundering proceeds of various cyber frauds across the country have been arrested from central Delhi, police said on Saturday. According to the police, the accused acted as intermediaries for larger cybercrime modules and were responsible for procuring mule bank accounts, into which cheated funds were deposited in installments. The money was withdrawn and delivered to the main fraudster, while the mule account holders retained small portions as commission. A fraudulent credit of Rs 50,000, dated May 1, was detected in a bank account belonging to one Sameer, a resident of Delhi's Kishan Ganj area, a senior officer said. Subsequently, he was apprehended, and during questioning, he allegedly disclosed that he had received Rs 1,60,760 in fraudulent deposits on the directions of an associate Shivam Rathore, the police said. A raid was conducted in Shastri Nagar area, leading to the arrest of Shivam (20).
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached fresh assets worth crores of rupees as part of a money laundering probe related to Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani and his companies, official sources said. The federal investigative agency had earlier attached properties worth Rs 7,500 crore in this case. The latest provisional attachment order has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for the assets located in various parts of the country. It is estimated that assets worth over Rs 1,400 crore have been attached as part of the latest order, the sources said.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police has booked four persons, including a former director and an ex-employee of Provogue India Ltd, for cheating the company of Rs 90 crore, officials have said. Provogue India Ltd, based in Mumbai, manufactures and sells a wide range of products, including men's and women's apparel, accessories and luggage. The accused persons were identified as former director of the company Rakesh Rawat, its former employee Sameer Khandelwal, resolution professional Amit Gupta, new purchaser Arpit Khandelwal, Plutus Investments and Holding Ltd and others, an official said on Wednesday. The accused conspired and allegedly undervalued the company's assets and deliberately delayed the auction process by two years to bring down its market value so that Khandelwal could purchase the company, an official said. The accused did not collect the receivable amounts from clients (debtors) for personal gain, he said. A complaint in this connection was lodged
The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Amit Katyal, a real estate businessman considered close to RJD chief Lalu Prasad's family, in a money laundering case linked to alleged cheating of homebuyers in Gurugram, official sources said. Katyal was taken into custody by the Gurugram zonal office of the agency on Monday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said. A special court in Gurugram sent him to six-day ED custody. The investigation pertains to the allegations of non-delivery of flats in the Krrish Florence Estate built in Gurugram's Sector 70 over 14 acres. The project was being developed by Katyal's company, Angle Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. Katyal was arrested by the ED also in 2023 in a separate money laundering case related to the railways' alleged land-for-jobs scam involving Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, and other family members. The businessman was chargesheeted in August by the federal agency in a third case for allegedly cheating homebuyers for Rs
The Delhi Police has arrested three people, including a sales manager of a private bank, over alleged links with an interstate syndicate involved in large-scale forex trading scam operated by Dubai-based handlers, an official said on Monday. The accused have been identified as Anurag Kumar, a mule-account provider; Zeeshan Syed, sales manager at a private Bank; and Himanshu Gupta, a key handler with past involvement in cheating and forgery, he said. They were allegedly part of a network that created shell companies and opened multiple mule current accounts to layer and launder the proceeds of investment frauds, the police said. The gang lured victims through social media groups, using manipulated dashboards to display fictitious forex trading profits, the senior officer said. Manipulated by the fake returns, victims were induced to deposit money repeatedly, which was then routed through a layered network of accounts created under entities such as "Rebootz Sync Professionals Pvt Ltd