Mumbai Police have initiated a parallel investigation into a sprawling network of mule bank accounts suspected of facilitating large-scale cyber fraud, online gaming and betting operations. The city's crime branch is scrutinising financial trails and the alleged involvement of several individuals, including Samundar Singh Rathod and Mukesh Jain, following a formal complaint filed by activist Santosh Gholap. The individuals named in the complaint have not been charged by the city police in these reports, and the allegations against them are yet to be tested.

Source: Mirror Now

The new city probe runs concurrently with the ongoing Enforcement Directorate (ED) money-laundering investigation into the alleged online betting network associated with All Panel Exchange (APX) and MGM91 — the earlier investigation in which the ED searched 20 locations across Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Hyderabad and Mehsana on October 13, arrested Edsom Fintech founder Ram U Ramdhani, and on October 27 arrested Sagar Dash, who a special court remanded to ED custody. Law-enforcement sources cited in the reports indicate the Mumbai Police intervention was prompted by overlap between mule accounts identified by federal investigators and accounts under the city crime branch's own scrutiny.

Source: The420

Rs 500 crore allegedly routed to Dubai handlers

Investigators suspect a syndicate laundered more than Rs 500 crore in illicit proceeds, routed through a complex web of mule bank accounts and SIM cards before being transferred to handlers based in Dubai. The city crime branch recently dismantled a key segment of the operation, arresting 12 individuals who were allegedly running the syndicate from a villa in Calangute, Goa.

Gholap's complaint, submitted to eight central agencies, highlights the use of numerous bank accounts and UPI IDs to facilitate betting transactions and move funds across multiple entities. It requests scrutiny of 17 bank accounts and 46 individuals and claims to hold details concerning approximately 20,442 casino players. The accounts were allegedly managed through small offices in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bengaluru and Goa.

Source: Inventiva

The ED trail: 200 shell companies via iPaisa

In the ED's broader investigation, federal investigators have alleged that more than 200 shell and front companies were used through the Pune-based Edsom Fintech's iPaisa payment platform to process transactions for betting and cyber-fraud operators. As the ED continues to map a money-laundering trail it says involves cryptocurrency channels, cash withdrawals and disguised trade transactions, the Mumbai Police investigation aims to establish the specific local banking and operational links of the network, focusing on the actual beneficiaries behind the mule accounts and the operators who facilitated the movements.