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Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a prosecution complaint against 299 accused persons and entities, including 76 of them belonging to chinese in a case of alleged duping of investors under the pretext of mining cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoins.
The Prosecution Complaint has been filed before the Special Court (PMLA), Dimapur, Nagaland, under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), under various sections of Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Information Technology Act. The ED said that the Special Court took cognizance of the Prosecution Complaint on Tuesday “after finding that a prima-facie case has been made out under PMLA, 2002 against the said 299 accused persons,” the ED said in a media release on Wednesday.
A total of 299 entities, including 76 Chinese-controlled entities in which 10 directors are of Chinese origin and two controlled by other foreign nationals, were named as accused by the ED.
Shell entities
The ED said its investigation revealed that various bank accounts and merchant IDs were opened by many shell entities having dummy directors and proprietors only for the purpose of rotation and layering proceeds of crime. The funds were fraudulently received for illegal online gaming and betting and investment in Bitcoin mining.
“For an investment of ₹57,000/, returns of ₹4,000 per day for 3 months were promised but money was paid only once and thereafter fresh funds were sought,” the agency stated.
Earlier, ED conducted search operations at 44 locations throughout the country and an amount of ₹176.67 crore, maintained by shell entities in various banks/virtual accounts were frozen, informed the agency. Further movable and immovable properties to the extent of ₹278.70 crore held in the name of dummy entities were attached. The total seizure and attachment stood at ₹455.37 crore.
The ED initiated probe on the basis of an FIR registered by Cyber Crime Police Station, Kohima, under various sections of the IPC and the IT Act, on allegations of duping of gullible investors, who were promised of astronomical returns on investing money in mining of Bitcoins and other crypto currencies using an app based token, “HPZ Token”.
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