Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate's Mumbai Zonal Office-II has arrested Sagar Dash in connection with an online gaming and betting scam allegedly operated through All Panel Exchange (APX) and related cyber-fraud activities, the agency said in a press release issued on Saturday, October 31. Dash was arrested on October 27 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, and a Special PMLA Court in Mumbai has remanded him to three days of ED custody.
Source: IANS via HiIndia
According to the ED, the investigation was initiated on the basis of three FIRs registered in online gaming, betting and cyber-fraud cases in which complainants were allegedly cheated of crores of rupees. The allegations against Dash have not been tested in court, and the agency said further investigation is underway.
The ED said its investigation revealed that the proceeds of the alleged fraud were routed through multiple mule bank accounts via the Jubilee Hills Mercantile Cooperative Bank in Hyderabad, before being transferred to various shell entities. Further analysis showed that significant amounts from those shell entities were subsequently deposited into the nodal account of the Nagarbhavi Credit Cooperative Society in Bengaluru, an account that reports say was maintained for Armstrong Exchange Private Limited, a company floated by Dash.
Source: The World Opinion
The agency alleged that Dash used the KYC details and fabricated documents of the Nagarbhavi Credit Cooperative Society to open a cryptocurrency account. It alleged that he routed hundreds of crores of rupees through the cooperative society's bank account, a substantial portion of which, it said, was directly linked to proceeds of crime generated through illegal online gaming and betting platforms that targeted unsuspecting victims through cyber scams.
The arrest follows earlier action in the same case, in which the ED conducted searches at multiple locations across Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Surat and Mehsana in Gujarat, seized incriminating documents and froze approximately Rs 9 crore lying in multiple bank accounts. The agency had also earlier arrested Ram U. Ramdhani, chief executive of Edsom Fintech Private Limited, in connection with the case.
The ED said it remained committed to tracing and dismantling illicit financial networks and to strict enforcement of the PMLA. All the claims in the case remain allegations by the investigating agency at this stage.