Mumbai: ED probe busts firm running fake site to trade in forex & gold, duping investors of over ₹100 Cr

Mumbai: An Enforcement Directorate (ED) money-laundering probe against a firm revealed that it allegedly ran a fake website, purportedly involved in the conduct of trade in forex, commodities and gold, to collect investments worth Rs116 crore from the public to defraud them.

After gathering Rs 116 crore, the firm later allegedly shut the website that had the investors’ accounts, ED sources said.

Bluemax Capital Private Limited

“The PMLA probe revealed that the accused company, Bluemax Capital Private Limited, had misled the people into believing that they were trading in forex, gold and commodities in their accounts through the website,” the source said.  “However, this was not the case and later this fake website was shut and shown to be hacked, thereby claiming to have lost all the invested money and defrauding the investors,” the source said.

The probe further revealed that out of the sum of Rs116 crore, a part of it was allegedly diverted to various overseas entities, located in Hong Kong, UAE, Switzerland, among others. “The siphoned-off money was layered and was utilised to invest in crypto currency and purchase of movable and immovable properties by the accused,” the source said. 
ED had so far seized assets in the form of cash, jewellery and crypto currencies to the tune of Rs2.13 crore and frozen bank balances to the tune of Rs3.24 crore during its searches. 

ED’s probe was based upon a Tamil Nadu case and it recently submitted a charge sheet in its money-laundering case against the firm and others in a Madurai court. 

FEMA authorisation

As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), entities need authorisation under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) to deal in forex. For the operation of any electronic trading platform for forex transactions, entities need authorisation under the Electronic Trading Platforms (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2018