Rs 800 crore duped from Indian investors by firm run by Russian: Report

The Enforcement directorate has reportedly filed a charge sheet in a Rs 800 crore Ponzi scheme scam created by a firm being run by one Pavel Prozorov, a Russian national.

OctaFX, the Forex trading firm has been all over social media in the last four to five years, due to its advertisements and sponsoring of IPL teams, while no one knew that it was all a part of an elaborate Ponzi scheme as per a report in India Today.

The money laundering case of the ED stems from a Pune Police (Shivaji Nagar police station) FIR filed against the app and its promoters who are alleged to have duped numerous investors by luring them with high returns.

OctaFX dodged any suspicion and lured investors with the help of their marketing by influencers, TV personalities, and Bollywood actors.

These investors were helped by the company's brokers who were being paid handsomely by the company.

However, despite the charge sheet, the Forex firm denies any scam.

"Since 2011, OctaFX has established a solid reputation in the financial industry, with hundreds of thousands of satisfied clients worldwide testifying to the quality and reliability of our services. We strongly refute any claims of money laundering, false promises of exorbitant returns, or engaging in practices that disadvantage traders," a spokesperson told India Today.

They assured that contrary to the allegation against them, they had never promised "quick riches or guaranteed profits".

Meanwhile, the ED investigation shows that within just nine months of functioning, OctaFx made Rs 800 core as proceeds of crime.

Meanwhile, the ED in July this year recorded the statement of two television actors here as part of a money laundering investigation linked to the operations of an "illegal" online forex trading platform that is alleged to have duped investors to the tune of Rs 500 crore, official sources said.

The sources said actors Krystel Dsouza and Karan Wahi were called for questioning in order to elicit information about some payments being made for promotions of the app named OctaFx which also had a website -- www.octafx.com.

In the same case, raids were launched on July 22 at locations in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Gurugram in the case of OctaFx Trading App and website www. octafx.com.

OctaFx established several "shell" or fake companies and utilised their bank accounts under the pretense of facilitating forex trading, according to the ED.

"These entities layered funds through fraudulent e-commerce websites created by them to circumvent restrictions imposed by payment gateways and to hide the nature of such incoming funds," the agency said.

OctaFx, it was found, employed technical experts to "help create a payment aggregator" for bypassing beneficial owner regulations.

This payment aggregator was instrumental in redirecting misappropriated funds, thereby enabling OctaFx to receive money from unsuspecting investors, the probe found.

Meanwhile, the former CEO of OctaFx India, Anna Rudaia had been summoned by the ED last year but she did not appear, after which a lookout circular had been issued on her name. As per the India Today report, she played an important role in the Indian operations linked to the illicit trading.

"Based on the evidence, Rudaia is implicated under Sections 3 and 4 of the PMLA for her active participation in promoting illegal Forex trading and laundering activities," the report reads.

On the other hand, Pavel Prozorov, Director of OctaFx India is attributed to as being the mastermind of the whole scam who is believed to have formed the network to conceal the origin of illicit funds.

(With PTI inputs)