Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 131.45 crore, including properties in Spain, in connection with its money laundering probe against the unauthorized forex trading platform OctaFX.The attachment has been made under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The attached assets include a luxury Italian commercial yacht named Cherry, a mini-jet boat operating in the Western Mediterranean, a high-end premium car, and two residential villas in Spain. All assets are allegedly linked to Pavel Prozorov, the purported mastermind behind OctaFX.
The yacht “Cherry” |
According to ED officials, the two residential villas in Spain are allegedly controlled by Prozorov through associated entities and were acquired using proceeds of crime.
Earlier, in December last year, the ED had provisionally attached 19 immovable properties worth Rs 41.73 crore, all located in Barcelona, Spain. Of these, 11 were directly registered in the name of Prozorov, while the remaining 8 were held by companies associated with him and OctaFX.
The investigation revealed that Prozorov used a complex network of shell entities and layered transactions to park illicit gains in overseas assets, including real estate and luxury transport assets.
However, in a communication with the Free Press Journal, OctaFX Global denied any association with the 19 properties provisionally attached by the ED in December last year, as well as any connection with Pavel Prozorov.
"Contrary to the allegations regarding assets in Spain we claim that Octa broker has no ownership of or association with any properties attached or investigated by Spanish authorities. We do not provide services in Spain, as is explicitly stated in the Customer Agreement. Consequently, none of the properties were attached or ceased in Spain, especially by ED which is an Indian local authority. Moreover, we have not received any legal communications from the Spanish government concerning the attachment of these properties as well."
As of now, OctaFX Global has not issued any official statement regarding the latest asset attachments announced by the ED.
The latest action comes after a series of searches and forensic analysis into cross-border transactions routed through OctaFX, which had earlier been flagged by financial intelligence agencies for operating without authorization from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
According to the ED, OctaFX, an unauthorized forex broker promoted through Indian Premier League (IPL) sponsorships, social media campaigns, and celebrity endorsements, facilitated large-scale laundering of investor funds. The platform allegedly used mule accounts created in the name of fake e-commerce companies to collect funds from Indian investors. These shell firms, run by dummy directors with falsified KYC documents, accessed domestic payment gateways by posing as legitimate merchants.
The funds were routed through unauthorized payment aggregators and escrow accounts, adding multiple layers to disguise the ownership trail and the nature of transactions.
The agency also stated that OctaFX deliberately altered its web domains and login URLs to evade detection and mislead investors. It allegedly manipulated trades to cause significant investor losses, while siphoning off funds into e-wallets and bank accounts linked to fictitious entities.
The ED estimates that OctaFX generated proceeds of crime amounting to at least Rs 800 crore within just nine months of operating in India. These funds were allegedly transferred abroad under the guise of fake imports of services to foreign firms controlled by Prozorov. The financial trail of these funds extended across multiple jurisdictions, including Spain, Estonia, Russia, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United Kingdom (UK).
