ED arrests 4 persons in Rs 108 cr trading fraud case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said that they have arrested four persons, including three directors of a private firm, in connection with a case connected to cheating the public of Rs 108 crore on the pretext of trading.

The accused were identified as R. Aravinth, S. Gopalakrishnan, S. Bharathraj -- the three Directors of Bluemax Capital Solutions Pvt Ltd. -- and their associate J. Amarnath of Tuticorin. They were produced before a special PMLA court which has remanded them to 12 days in custody.

The ED initiated their probe on the basis of multiple FIRs registered by the Tamil Nadu Police against Bluemax Capital Solutions Pvt. Ltd, its directors and others.

The police received complaints from the general public that they were cheated by the accused who promised them high returns and made them invest their hard-earned money in trading of forex, commodities and gold.

The ED said that the victims were cheated to the tune of around Rs 108 crore.

The probe agency learnt that the directors had created a website of the company with fake features that showed false real time forex trading with the investors' money.

"The modus operandi of the company was that once a person would invest money, they would be provided with an account and the website of the Company was designed in such a way that when a person logged into his/her account, it would show statements falsely depicting real time forex trading being done regularly in the accounts. The website was designed to mislead investors by falsely depicting genuine trading in forex, commodities through trading charts, etc. which duped the investors into thinking that their money was being indeed invested in trading and fictitious account statement with Profit and Loss was provided monthly," said the ED.

In October 2019, the directors had deliberately staged a false hacking of their company server and thereafter informed the investors that their money was lost in trading.

They had then made token repayments of part money to a few investors, leaving others high and dry.

The ED investigation showed that in reality, the investors' money was not invested in any of the trading activities as promised and that the now arrested persons, had diverted a sizeable portion through various business entities, and invested in new businesses in their names or their wives' names and also invested in crypto currencies clandestinely.

It was also seen that all the three directors have together started companies and bank accounts in the name of Bluemax Global Ltd in offshore locations mainly in the UAE, Hong Kong, Belize and the UK and stashed money in them.

Moreover, they had also started various businesses and opened bank accounts in their names and in the names of other unrelated persons in foreign countries to commit fraud and cheating.