Enforcement Directorate
– Photo : Amar Ujala
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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen bank deposits and demat holdings worth over Rs 80 crore in a money laundering case linked to the operation of an illegal online forex trading platform that is accused of defrauding investors of Rs 500 crore.
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ED gave information
The ED on Wednesday said it had carried out raids in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Gurugram on July 22 in connection with the OctaFX trading app and website www.octafx.com. The money fraudulently obtained from investors under the guise of forex trading on OctaFX was funneled into investments in SEBI registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) to present them as legitimate funds. OctaFX used entities based in British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Estonia to transfer funds for its promotional activities to lure investors, the federal agency said in a statement. According to the ED, OctaFX set up several shell or fake companies and used their bank accounts on the pretext of facilitating forex trading.
Earned a profit of more than 1000 crores
According to the agency, OctaFX India Pvt Ltd, OctaFX and their entities have defrauded investors under the guise of foreign exchange trading, thereby earning profits of over Rs 1,000 crore from the Indian territory. A part of these funds were transferred through a web of complex transactions with the help of shell entities and remitted abroad to their related entities under the guise of bogus freight services, import of services, etc.