Probe against dubious website: ED seizes ₹1.3 crore, freezes ₹15.8 Lakh

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized ₹1.3 crore in cash during searches as part of a money laundering probe related to a dubious investment website accused of cheating customers. The ED also froze bank accounts in the Mumbai branch of a muti-national bank having balance worth ₹15.8 lakh

The fake website had allegedly lured customers with investment opportunities by promising lucrative returns, agency sources said. The frozen funds in the bank accounts belonged to the firms that had allegedly remitted the proceeds from the fake website, disguising them as payments against imports, according to the sources.

Digital Media and Entertainment, Irongate Productions Pvt Ltd, Shelly Cargo and Transport Private Limited and Sunheri Exim Pvt Ltd are among the dubious firms under the ED scanner, the sources said.

The agency had launched an investigation under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, based on an FIR registered by the Uttarakhand Police against various persons accused of cheating gullible customers through their website, www.glc.ltd.

“The probe revealed that the people associated with the website, along with other individuals, were involved in luring various persons to invest in various trades through the website and cheat them,” an ED source said.

“The funds collected were transferred to other companies and accounts of individuals and thereafter the said funds were laundered outside the country in the guise of remittances for import through the four companies,” the source said. “These companies have bank accounts with the State Bank of Mauritius, Mumbai,” the ED source said.

Apart from a few locations in Maharashtra, the agency conducted its searches in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. The searches also resulted in recovery of incriminating documents, the ED sources said.