The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested four more accused in connection with an alleged international fake call centre scam targeting US nationals, taking the total number of arrests in the money-laundering case to seven, the agency said on Wednesday (November 4, 2026), ANI reported. The four — Harshil Nayanbhai Raval, Jaswant Singh, Chetan Munjal and Pranav Pithadia — were arrested on November 3 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, produced before the Special Court (PMLA) at Nampally in Hyderabad, which remanded all four to judicial custody.

Source: ANI via DevDiscourse

The arrests were made by the ED's Hyderabad Zonal Office, Nation Press reported. Earlier in the same case, the ED had arrested Vikas Nimar on July 27, Tarachand Nimar on August 5 and Mohd Irfan Ansari on August 10; all three are lodged in Central Prison, Chanchalguda, Hyderabad, ANI reported.

Source: Nation Press

How the alleged scam worked

According to the ED, the syndicate operated organised calling floors in India where employees worked as dialers, bankers and closers. They allegedly contacted US nationals on the pretext of fraudulent purchases or suspicious charges on their accounts and then threatened them by impersonating officials of US agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of the Treasury, ANI reported. The callers allegedly used forged identity cards, badges, official letters and court documents to intimidate victims — many of them elderly US residents — into handing over cash and gold to pick-up persons, sending cash parcels by courier, transferring money to US bank accounts of money mules, or buying gift cards.

Source: ANI via DevDiscourse

Searches at four premises in Patiala, Pune and Chandigarh on September 15 found three operating fake call centres — two in Patiala and one in Pune — with around 220 people working at them at the time, ANI reported. Forensic examination of 79 seized devices found chats, financial ledgers, calling data, victim records and cryptocurrency wallets; the seized phones contained 6,463 US telephone numbers that were called or messaged, and the syndicate allegedly used lead lists of about 20 lakh (2 million) people in the US and auto-dialer servers hosted in Germany and Finland, ANI reported.

Source: ANI via DevDiscourse

Forged US documents, 397 bank accounts and a crypto trail

The ED said the devices held details of 397 US bank accounts across at least 15 banks, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Thread Bank, Column N.A. and Lead Bank, allegedly belonging to recruited money mules, victims whose accounts were taken over, or persons whose identities were stolen or synthetically created. They also contained the Social Security numbers of 140 US nationals with dates of birth, addresses, bank details and photographs of US driver's licences, forged US government documents — including notices of seizure and liens, asset-forfeiture notices, Treasury assurance letters, a fake US Court of Appeals order and purported legal notices from the Federal Trade Commission and the US Supreme Court — and at least 11 forged identity cards and badges in the names of US federal agents and officials, ANI reported.

Source: ANI via DevDiscourse

The proceeds were allegedly converted into Indian currency through cryptocurrency and hawala channels and routed through accounts in Dubai and other countries, including Hong Kong, ANI reported. Cryptocurrency — particularly USDT (Tether) on the TRON network and Bitcoin — was allegedly used extensively, and victims were also made to deposit cash through Bitcoin ATMs, the agency said. UrbanAcres reported that the financial investigation is examining assets estimated at about Rs 400 crore, including land and properties in Chandigarh and cryptocurrency wallets, with transfers through intermediary wallets and offshore exchanges in countries including Singapore and South Korea.

Source: UrbanAcres

The roles the ED has alleged

Pranav Pithadia allegedly owned and managed the Patiala calling floors, employing 242 staff including 110 dialers, handled payment approvals and settlements, and directed the movement of proceeds through US mule accounts and Dubai-based accounts, the ED said, as reported by ANI. Harshil Nayanbhai Raval allegedly maintained the master accounts of the fake call centres — recording earnings, partners' shares and remittances of proceeds to Dubai — and allegedly invested proceeds in properties. Jaswant Singh allegedly coordinated cash collections from victims in the US through pick-up teams and courier parcels and routed the money for conversion into Indian currency through tokens and hawala channels. Chetan Munjal, a 25 per cent partner in Rabditta Corporates, which operates Kala Ghoda restaurants, allegedly provided protection to the call centre operations, and the company reportedly received Rs 23.19 lakh in proceeds of crime, the ED said.

Source: ANI via DevDiscourse

The ED said it initiated its investigation on the basis of scheduled offences of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, corresponding to Sections 420, 467, 471 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The agency said further investigation is underway to identify additional proceeds of crime, trace the money trail and ascertain the involvement of other persons and entities in the alleged network, ANI reported. The allegations have not been tested in a trial; the four arrested on November 3 are in judicial custody.

Source: ANI via DevDiscourse