A luxury yacht cruising in the Mediterranean Sea and villas in Spain have been provisionally attached by the ED in a money laundering investigation.
A luxury yacht cruising in the Mediterranean Sea and villas in Spain have been provisionally attached by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering investigation. On Thursday, ED said it has provisionally attached properties, including a luxury yacht and residential properties in Spain, to the tune of Rs 131.45 crores in an ongoing investigation against unauthorised forex trading platform, OctaFx.
“These assets belong to Pavel Prozorov the mastermind behind platform OctaFx,” ED said in a statement on Thursday.
“Funds cheated from the investors were siphoned out of India in the guise of fake import of services to entities controlled by Pavel Prozorov, the mastermind behind the OctaFx, across Spain, Estonia, Russia, Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE, and the UK,” ED said.
The anti-money laundering federal probe agency used provisions of PMLA to provisionally attach movable properties – luxury yacht, a minijet boat, luxury car and immovable properties in the form of two residential properties in Spain.
“The luxury Yacht goes by the name – “Cherry” is an Italian model commercial yacht cruising in the Western Mediterranean,” Officials said.
Probe agency case stems from a criminal case filed by the Pune Police. The FIR has alleged that several individuals had defrauded investors by falsely promising high returns through the OctaFX forex trading platform.
In the money laundering probe, it was found, “OctaFX, an unauthorised forex broker promoted via IPL, social media and celebrities, laundered funds by collecting investor money through mule accounts in the names of fake e-commerce firms,” ED said.
These shell firms, with dummy directors and manipulated KYCs, accessed payment gateways posing as legitimate merchants.
Funds were routed through unauthorised payment aggregators and escrow accounts, adding layers to obscure ownership and transaction purpose. OctaFX deliberately changed its login URLs and web addresses to obscure its fraudulent operations from investors.
The platform manipulated trades to cause significant investor losses while siphoning funds into e-wallets and accounts of fictitious entities.
ED’s investigation also revealed that the proceeds of crime to the tune of at least Rs 800 Crore were generated by OctaFX from its operations in India in just nine months
ED has seized and attached assets worth more than Rs. 296 Crore, including 19 properties in Spain owned by Pavel Prozorov. Two Prosecution Complaints have been filed against OctaFX and 54 other accused, with the Special Court (PMLA) taking cognisance of the same.
