On Monday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has made a significant seizure of 19.5 kg of gold valued at Rs 14.04 crore from the locker associated with a cyber fraudster.
On 3 May, authorities discovered the locker, registered under the name of the fraudster’s mother, at the Ballabgarh branch of the Indian Bank in Faridabad, Haryana.
The accused, identified as Punit Kumar, also known as Puneet Maheshwari, hailing from Moti Nagar in the national capital. Authorities apprehended him from the Arrival Hall of Terminal-3 at the IGI Airport on 3 April.
Following his arrest, the Delhi Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Court presented Kumar on the same day, granting ED custody for a period of 12 days.
Currently, he remains under judicial custody, as stated by a senior official from the ED.
The seizure of the gold comes as a result of specific intelligence indicating that Punit Kumar had stashed proceeds from cybercrimes in the form of gold within a locker registered under his mother’s name at Indian Bank.
Moreover, previous searches conducted under the provisions of the PMLA in February and March 2024 at 14 different locations led to the confiscation of various assets.
Among these assets were:
Additionally, incriminating documents and electronic devices containing crucial evidence were seized during these operations.
The investigations revealed a complex money laundering scheme involving foreign-based online gaming companies targeting Indian residents.
According to ED sources, Punit Kumar, along with individuals like Ashish Kakkar, Keshav Sood, and Shiv Dargar, facilitated outward remittances derived from cybercrimes.
The ED alleged that the accused engaged in hawala transactions to various destinations worldwide, including the UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Mauritius, and Thailand, among others.
Further scrutiny into the matter uncovered Kakkar’s involvement in establishing and operating multiple shell trading firms and bogus companies across India and abroad, notably in China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dubai.
These entities were purportedly registered under the names of various employees or hired individuals using fabricated or forged documents.
They served as conduits for collecting, routing, and outwardly remitting the proceeds of crime from online gaming activities conducted by foreign-registered gaming websites.
The modus operandi employed by Kakkar and his associates created dummy firms using forged or fabricated documents. The forged documents were employed in the operations of bank accounts opened under the names of dummy companies/firms.
Sources close to the investigation revealed that the accused
Notably, among the foreign companies, 46 were based in China, 30 in Singapore, 18 in Hong Kong, seven in the UAE, two in Malaysia, one in Thailand, and one in Mauritius.
Additionally, the accused allegedly retained blank chequebooks of the dummy firms/companies after obtaining or forging signatures on blank leaves.
The entire operation underscores the ED’s relentless efforts to combat financial crimes and money laundering activities perpetrated through sophisticated schemes, especially within the realm of online gaming.
It also highlights the importance of collaborative efforts among law enforcement agencies to tackle such transnational criminal activities effectively.
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