Hyderabad Police busts Rs 903 crore investment fraud linked to Dubai, China. Here are the details

The Hyderabad Police has claimed to have unearthed an online investment fraud worth Rs 903 crore and announced the arrest of 10 people who were involved in this fraud. Fraudsters from Dubai and China collected crores of rupees from fake Indian investment apps, transferred this money to multiple bank accounts, and then converted it to US dollars via foreign exchange dealers, who then laundered it out of India.  

What happened: According to the Hyderabad Police, the Chinese folks floated bogus investment apps on the Playstore, collected money from people who wanted to invest their money, and then used RBI-authorised forex money exchanges to convert this money into US dollars. Once converted to US dollars, the money would then be transferred abroad through hawala operators.  

In a significant breakthrough,the cyber crime wing of HCP busted a transnational gang involved in Rs 903 crore investment fraud who has connections in Cambodia, Dubai and China.

Perpetrators lured gullible investors through fake investment apps & laundered money. pic.twitter.com/KPVDMmKzdL

— C.V.ANAND, IPS (@CPHydCity) October 12, 2022

How did the fraud unravel? A Hyderabad resident invested money in a fancy investment app called Loxam and as it turned out, he lost Rs 1.6 lakh. When he complained to the police, they found that the money was deposited in the IndusInd Bank account of a certain company called ''Xindai Technologies Pvt Ltd''. The money collected in this bank account of Xindai would then be distributed to multiple other bank accounts.

How was the money distributed to other bank accounts from the main bank account of Xindai? About 38 bank accounts have been found to have been created by two teams: one operated from South Asia while another operated from Dubai. 

First, the police established the link between random bank accounts:

Team 1: Virender, Jack, Sanjay, Lec, and Chu Chun Yu from South Asia operated one part of the fraud. A Xindai Technologies bank account was opened by Virender Singh Rathour on the instructions of a Chinese guy called Jack. The username and password of this account were then shared by Virender with Jack, who seemed to be the one controlling this bank account. 

• The investigation found that the phone number that was mentioned in the application details of Xindai Technologies was also mentioned on the application of another bank account of another company. This other bank account belonged to ''Betench Networks Private Limited''. This is how the police established a link between these two companies.
• A certain Sanjay Kumar of Delhi had opened this bank account of Betench Networks on the instructions of a Chinese guy called Lec. Lec and Jack (the one who instructed Virender to open Zindai's bank account) would then hand the bank details to a couple of Chinese guys called Pei and Huan Zhuan. For every bank account that Sanjay and Virender opened, they would get Rs 1.2 lakh commission from Lec. 
• Police investigations found that 15 other similar accounts had been opened by Sanjay Kumar. The details of these 15 accounts were passed on to Lec, who then forwarded them to someone called Chu Chun-yu in Taiwan (who was temporarily in Mumbai). Chu Chun-yu then sent the bank account details, user IDs, passwords, and SIM cards to other countries.

Team 2: There was another team that operated the fraud from Dubai and Hyderabad that included Syed, Mirza, Pervez, and Imran. Syed Sultan and Mirza Baig opened multiple bank accounts on the instructions of a certain Pervez.

• The bank details, user IDs, and Sim cards of these bank accounts would then be informed to Pervez, who would then share them with Imran in Dubai. Meanwhile, Sultan and Baig would get a commission for opening those bank accounts.  

So where did the money eventually go? The police found 38 such related bank accounts, to which money was transferred from the bank account of Xindai Technologies. Of these 38 accounts, a majority of the money went to entities called ''Ranjan Money Corp'' and ''KDS Forex Pvt Limited''. 

The police found about Rs 441 crore was transferred to Ranjan Money Corp Pvt Ltd over a period of seven months and about Rs 462 crore was transferred to KDS Forex Pvt Ltd’s account. The money received in the bank accounts of Ranjan Money Corp Pvt Ltd and KDS Forex Pvt Ltd account would be converted into US dollars through various foreign exchange establishments. These foreign exchange establishments would use the pretext of international tours and travels to convert rupees into dollars. Once converted, the money would be transferred to another intermediary who would then transfer the amounts abroad through hawala operators.