India, July 22 -- The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case in connection with an alleged multi-crore cryptocurrency investment scam and conducted searches in Bengaluru and other locations, uncovering evidence of fraud estimated at around Rs 300 crore. The probe was initiated by the ED's Bengaluru Zonal Office under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on a complaint filed by a Dutch company through the Cyber Crime Police Station in South Andaman. According to the agency, accused Mohammed Waseem, Saurabh Diwan and Vaibhav Gupta allegedly lured investors by offering discounted allocations of virtual digital assets (VDAs), including MultiverseX, Kava, BEAM, GRASS, SUI, VANA and AGLD, through over-the-counter (OTC) transactions.
The accused allegedly carried out small crypto transactions initially to gain the complainant's confidence before persuading them to invest millions of dollars in OTC deals. They later failed to deliver the promised digital assets after cryptocurrency prices surged. The ED alleged that the crypto proceeds were diverted through multiple digital wallets to Bengaluru-based Ravindra K, identified as the mastermind behind the OTC trading operations. Searches conducted on July 18 and 19 revealed that the accused projected themselves as crypto "opinion leaders" on social media platforms such as Telegram, WhatsApp and Instagram to attract investors. They allegedly promised special allocation rates for OTC cryptocurrencies, collected millions of dollars from investors and diverted the proceeds for personal expenses, businesses and the purchase of movable and immovable properties.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.