The Enforcement Directorate says it has got custody of the mastermind of a financial scam run through dubious investment apps available on the Google Play Store.
Anas Ahmed, arrested by the Tamil Nadu police’s Crime Branch, Crime Investigation Department (CB-CID), had been lodged in the Puzhal Central Jail, Chennai. On Thursday, ED officials from Bengaluru got his custody for six days to question him over suspected money laundering.
According to the ED, Ahmed is a partner in two firms — M/s H & S Ventures Inc & M/s Clifford Ventures — that pocketed Rs 84 crore collected from the general public as investments.
The central agency said that the firms ran Power Bank and other dubious investment apps, soliciting investments from the general public by promising them high returns on a daily and monthly basis. The firms claimed to invest the money in gaming businesses.
The money was, however, invested in cryptocurrencies and remitted out of India. The investors were paid neither the promised interest nor the principal, and the firms wound up overnight. Ahmed was the principal player in this fraud and is suspected to have had links with some Chinese nationals, the ED added.
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