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Fraud alert! ED freezes deposits worth ₹170 crore from fake forex trading platform in multi-state raids
Raids were conducted on February 11 in Delhi, Noida, Shamli, and Rohtak as part of a money laundering investigation against QFX Trade and its directors for allegedly operating a fraudulent forex trading scheme, duping investors and running unregulated deposit schemes.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized bank deposits worth ₹170 crore in a multi-state search against promoters of QFX Trade, an alleged fraudulent forex trading and deposit scheme, PTI reported.
The ED said in a statement that it conducted multiple raids across locations in Delhi, Noida and Shamli in Uttar Pradesh and Rohtak in Haryana, during its investigations against QFX and its directors — Rajendra Sood, Santosh Kumar and Vineet Kumar-- apart from “mastermind” Lavish Chaudhary aka Nawab Ali, the report said.
‘Unexplained’ Funds Frozen
The ED has thus frozen deposits amounting to ₹170 crore from 30 bank accounts, as the company directors were unable to explain the source of the funds, the statement said.
Further, cash of about ₹90 lakh was separately seized following searches against an agent of QFX, it said.
The Case: Fraud Alert! About QFX Trade Ltd
The ED began investigating money laundering after multiple FIRs were filed by the Himachal Pradesh Police against QFX for cheating customers through fraudulent forex trading schemes.
The report added ED has alleged that QFX and executives were conducting “unregulated” deposit scheme, promising high returns on investments to the investors, the ED alleged.
Agents of QFX ran multi-level marketing (MLM) complete with websites, apps and social media ads to attract investors , an ED statement said. The agency followed police FIRs and tracked a similar modus operandi used by YFX, which duped “innocent investors by luring high rate of returns under the guise of forex trading”, it added.
Probe Expands to Related Scamsters
“In addition to QFX more fraudulent investment schemes are being run and controlled by Nawab Ali alias Lavish Chaudhary such as BotBro, TLC Coin, Yorker FX projecting them as forex trading apps/websites,” it said.
The ED found that as part of the MLM, events were organised in India and Dubai to lure more customers. It traced collection of investors funds to the accounts of Capter Money Solutions, NPay Box, and Tiger Digital Services.
These are “shell” or dummy companies being “used” by the masterminds behind QFX/YFX, the ED statement added.
(With inputs from PTI)
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Business NewsNewsIndiaFraud alert! ED freezes deposits worth ₹170 crore from fake forex trading platform in multi-state raids
First Published:13 Feb 2025, 03:24 PM IST
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