New Delhi, January 28
The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached Proceeds of Crime (PoC) in the form of 10 immovable properties worth Rs. 20.69 crores generated out of various cybercrimes and laundered by cybercrime masterminds
The ED identified them as Punit Kumar alias Puneet Maheshwari alias John (resident of Moti Nagar, Delhi), and Ashish Kakkar alias Pablo (resident of Greater Kailash, Delhi).
ED informed that these properties include 9 residential flats in New Delhi and a parcel of agricultural land in Rewari, Haryana held in the name of Deepti, w/o Punit Kumar; Ankur, brother of Punit Kumar; Prashant, cousin of Punit Kumar; Asha Kakkar, mother of Ashish Kakkar and in the name of Punit Kumar himself.
Multiple FIRs have been registered across India against cybercrime fraudsters involved in scams
like online gaming fraud, multi-level marketing schemes, and investment scams. Following this, the ED
initiated an investigation.
The investigation revealed that these scams operated through various fraudulent websites and apps (e.g. upbitro.com instead of original upbit.com, betting website www.taj777.com) created by companies based in small island nations like Curacao, Malta, and Cyprus.
These foreign companies and fake apps/websites are connected to bank accounts held in India for collection of POC from the public. The money was then routed through multiple bank accounts in four to five layers to disguise the transactions and hide the source and then transferred out of India under the false pretext of paying for imported goods or services. Those bank accounts of companies and firms which were used for layering crime proceeds are controlled by Ashish Kakkar, Punit Kumar, and their associates, said officials.
More than 200 companies were used for layering the POC and those companies were registered in the names of employees of Ashish Kakkar, Punit Kumar, and their associates, such as office boys, drivers, and sweepers. Their signatures were taken on documents and misused to operate the companies and bank accounts. These entities were created on the basis of forged documents in order to have complete control over all the banking transactions of the entities. Registered office premises were rented in the names of these dummy directors. Online verification revealed that the even stamp papers for the rent agreements were also forged.
Siphoning off the PoC through Circular trading in order to siphon off the POC outside India, Ashish Kakkar and Punit Maheshwari misused Special Economic Zone (SEZ) facilities by obtaining GST registrations and SEZ permissions, ED further stated.
They imported highly overvalued goods (overvalued by 5000 times) such as rose oil and solar panel machinery through SEZs like Mundra and Kandla from Dubai, Hong Kong, and China etc and made huge illegal outward foreign remittances abroad against import.
Thereafter the same goods were re-exported (without any processing)but no remittance was received against the export. In these circular transactions, same goods were imported and then exported multiple times to siphon off the POC abroad. Ashish Kakkar and Punit Maheshwari ultimately siphoned off Rs. 4,978 Crore abroad, laundering the POC obtained from cyber fraud using these circular transactions.
Punit Kumar and Ashish Kakkar were arrested in March and April respectively. The agency also conducted at 17 places resulting in seizure of approx. 27.50 Kgs of gold valued at Rs.19.08 crore, cash amounting to Rs. 75 lakh, jewelry, incriminating documents and electronic devices containing incriminating data from the premises of Ashish Kakkar, Punit Kumar and their associates, ED further stated.
