Hyderabad: The Hyderabad police have unearthed a Rs 712-crore investment fraud involving Chinese and Dubai operators, and suspected to be linked with Hezbollah terror group. Nine persons have been nabbed for their involvement in the case.
The police arrested a Gujarat-based businessman Prakash Mulchandbhai Prajapathi and his associates Kumar Prajapathi, Naimuddin Wahiduddin Shaik, Gagan Kumar Soni, Parveez alias Guddu, Shameer Khan, Mohammed Munawar, Shah Sumair and Arul Dass.
The arrested were made after an investment fraud complaint was filed at Hyderabad cyber crime station by a city-based businessman, who lost Rs 28 lakh to fraudsters.
According to the police, the complainant was offered a part-time trading job through Telegram messaging app, after which he registered on the website that facilitated the investment fraud.
Initially, the victim was given the job of rating a set of tasks after investing smaller amounts of money, for which he earned a profit. However, after the first few transactions, he could not withdraw the profits.
The fraudsters made the victim deposit more money in the wallet, assuring that he could withdraw profits later. However, they later asked him for a withdrawal fee of Rs 17 lakhs to get back the invested amount, including profits.
The police found that the victim’s money had been transferred to six accounts including an account maintained in the name of M/S Radhika Marketing. From here, the money was transferred to Dubai and used for the purchase of cryptocurrency.
Police teams visited different states across the country and checked several hundred bank transactions to understand the magnitude of the fraud. “Close to 15,000 people were duped by using a sophisticated network in India, Dubai. The plan was hatched by Chinese nationals,” said CV Anand, commissioner of police, Hyderabad.
According to the police, one of the accused, Prakash Prajapathi, is associated with Chinese nationals Lee Lou Guangzhou, Nan Ye, Kevin Jun, and others. “He coordinates with them in supplying Indian bank accounts and shares the OTPs for operating these accounts from Dubai and China through remote access apps.” the police said.
The Chinese masterminds run the task-based investment frauds by luring victims by through Telegram messages, police added.
The police are now taking up the matter with the National Investigation Agency to probe the connection of the fraudsters with international terror groups. “During the probe we found that the money sent from India to Dubai was converted into USDT (a cryptocurrency). Some of the apps used to convert the amount into digital currency were linked to Hezbollah, and that needs to be investigated by the NIA,” the commissioner added.
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