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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
About 50 South Koreans repatriated from Cambodia have been formally arrested on accusations that they worked for online scam organisations in the Southeast Asian country. They are among the 64 South Koreans who were detained in Cambodia over the past several months and were flown to South Korea on a charter flight Saturday. Upon arrival, they were detained while police investigated whether they voluntarily joined scam organisations in Cambodia or were forced to work there. Online scams, many based in Southeast Asian nations, have risen sharply since the COVID-19 pandemic and produced two sets of victims: the tens of thousands of people who have been forced to work as scammers under the threat of violence, and the targets of their fraud. Monitoring groups say online scams earn international criminal gangs billions of dollars annually. The Korean National Police Agency said Tuesday that local courts have so far issued warrants to arrest 49 of the 64 returnees. It said a court will ...
Cryptocurrency worth Rs 2,385 crore has been attached under the anti-money laundering law and the Spanish "mastermind" of the alleged multi-crore OctaFX Ponzi scam has been arrested in that country, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Friday. The case pertains to a "fraud" where several investors are alleged to have been duped on the false promise of high returns through the OctaFX forex trading platform. A provisional order has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach cryptocurrencies worth Rs 2,385 crore in connection with the ongoing investigation against the "unauthorised" forex trading platform OctaFX. The alleged mastermind of the fraud -- Pavel Prozorov -- has been arrested from Spain by the local police authorities, based on his involvement in cybercrimes affecting multiple countries, the agency said in a statement. OctaFX, as per the ED, "systematically duped" Indian investors of Rs 1,875 crore between July 2022-April 2023, generating
The Enforcement Directorate on Monday conducted searches against West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress MLA Jiban Krishna Saha and some of his relatives as part of a probe into alleged irregularities in the hiring of teachers and staffers in schools, official sources said. The raids are being undertaken under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against the legislator from the Burwan Assembly segment in Murshidabad district. Some of the relatives and associates of the MLA are also being searched, the sources said. Saha was arrested by the CBI in 2023 for his alleged links to the "scam" and later released. The ED's money laundering case stems from an FIR registered by the CBI, which was directed by the Calcutta High Court to carry out investigations into alleged irregularities in the hiring of group 'C' and 'D' staff, assistant teachers of Classes 9 to 12 and primary teachers. The ED had earlier arrested former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee, his alleged
Bollywood actor Dino Morea on Thursday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here in connection with a money laundering probe linked to an alleged Rs 65 crore Mithi river desilting scam, officials said. Morea, who had been summoned by the ED for questioning, reached the federal agency's office at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai at around 10.30 am, an official said. The ED on June 6 conducted searches at more than 15 locations in Mumbai, and Kochi in Kerala, including the premises of Dino Morea in Bandra (West) area here, those linked to his brother Santino, some Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials, and contractors among others, official sources earlier said. The searches were conducted in Kochi as one of the companies that provided desilting equipment to the BMC -- Matprop Technical Services Pvt Ltd -- is based in this city, they said. The investigation is being conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources had said. The ED cas
Police have registered a case against a man for allegedly cheating a builder from Maharashtra's Thane district of Rs 2.7 crore after promising a business loan at a lower interest rate, an official said on Sunday. The 68-year-old complainant from Ambernath, who runs a construction business along with his two sons, needed a Rs 25 crore loan. An acquaintance subsequently introduced him to the accused, who hails from Nashik, the official from Shivajinagar police station said. The accused promised to arrange the Rs 25 crore loan at 7 per cent annual interest through his company and signed an agreement with the victim's firm on August 4, 2017, he said. As per the agreement, the victim was to pay a 10 per cent service charge of Rs 2.5 crore. Between August 2017 and January 2019, the victim transferred a total of Rs 2.7 crore over three instalments into the bank accounts linked to the accused's company, the official said. Despite repeated follow-ups, the promised loan was never sanctione
The special investigation team (SIT) probing the alleged 'Shalarth ID' scam in Maharashtra has found that more than 500 teachers were recruited without following laid down procedures, a senior official said on Sunday. Shalarth is a centralised portal of the Maharashtra government to manage payroll and service records of employees at government and government-aided schools, including teachers. Shalarth ID refers to the teacher identification number allotted to such staffers. "The SIT has found that of the 622 teachers appointed, only 75 had been hired following proper procedures. The remaining 547 were appointed using fake IDs after paying Rs 20-30 lakh each. This means the scam may be worth more than Rs 100 crore," the police official said. SIT in charge and assistant commissioner of police Sunita Meshram said the probe, apart from deputy directors in the education department, is now focusing on education officers and teachers. More arrests are likely in this case, Meshram added.
The Andhra Pradesh police has busted an alleged international cyber fraud syndicate operating from Achyutapuram here, with the arrest of 33 people and seized high-end tech equipment and Rs 3 lakh cash. Anakapalli district Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Vishnu Swaroop led simultaneous raids at three major locations on Thursday following a complaint from a Village Revenue Officer and intelligence inputs. Items including computers, network devices, and luxury furnishings were seized. This was a full-fledged call center targeting United States (US) citizens through impersonation and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) scams using Amazon support as a cover, Swaroop told PTI on Friday. According to police, job seekers were hired through online portals, trained in impersonation techniques, and then deployed for scam calls to extract sensitive financial information from US citizens The recruits, mostly from Assam and northeast India, were provided food and accommodation. In a week t
Delhi Police is formulating a multi-pronged strategy to tackle the rising cases of digital arrest frauds, which includes setting up a centralised complaint mechanism and compiling a database of gangs involved in such crimes, officials said on Saturday. A four-member committee has been constituted to draft guidelines, policies and regulations for the move. Headed by a Special Commissioner-rank officer, the committee includes a convenor of Deputy Commissioner Police rank and two members of Joint Commissioner and Additional Commissioner rank, a senior police officer said. The move comes amid a surge in cases where cybercriminals, posing as police officers, government officials or courier agents, deceive victims by falsely claiming they are involved in legal offences. The fraudsters often conduct video calls simulating legal proceedings and coerce people into transferring large sums of money under threat of arrest. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which monitors cybercr