The Enforcement Directorate (ED) of Chandigarh zone has conducted search operations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, at various locations in Delhi, Rohtak in Haryana, Noida and Shamli in Uttar Pradesh as part of an ongoing investigation in the case of QFX Trade Ltd and others, running multi-level marketing scheme under the guise of forex trading.
Their Directors are Rajender Sood, Vineet Kumar and Santosh Kumar and one of the masterminds Nawab Ali, a.k.a. Lavish Chaudhary.
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The ED initiated an investigation on the basis of multiple FIRs registered by Himachal Pradesh Police against QFX Company which had defrauded many investors through a fraudulent forex trading scheme.
QFX Company and its Directors were running an unregulated deposit scheme, promising high returns on investments to the investors. The agents of QFX group of companies ran the MLM Scheme under the name of the QFX investment plan, wherein they created websites, apps, social media ads, etc., to attract investors promising higher rates of return in the name of forex trading.
The directors of the company and various agents working on the commission of QFX and YFX hatched a conspiracy and ran an unregulated deposit scheme to lure people to invest in the investment scheme with a five per cent return per month on investments made by investors.
The officials said on Thursday the investigation revealed that the name of the QFX scheme was changed to YFX (Yorker Fx) after the FIR was registered by Himachal Police against QFX Trade Ltd and its Directors. The modus operandi was similar to dupe innocent investors by luring a high rate of returns under the guise of forex trading.
In addition to QFX, more fraudulent investment schemes were being run and controlled by Nawab Ali such as BotBro, TLC Coin, and Yorker FX projecting them as forex trading apps and websites. Various events were being organised in India and Dubai to lure more customers.
The ED investigation further revealed that multiple bank accounts of NPay Box Private Ltd, Capter Money Solutions Private Ltd and Tiger Digital Services Private Ltd were being used for the collection of funds from investors.
Searches were conducted on the office and premises of the Directors of these companies, which revealed that these shell companies were being used by the masterminds of the QFX/YFX scheme to receive deposits from the public for investment in QFX/YFX in the name of giving high returns claiming that returns are generated from forex trading.
During the course of search operations, movable properties in the form of more than 30 bank account balances of these shell companies to the tune of Rs 170 crore have been frozen as Directors of the company could not explain the source of funds.
Searches were also conducted on some of the agents of QFX/YFX. Cash amounts of more than Rs 90 lakh were seized from one of the premises of one of the agents. Various incriminating documents and digital devices have been recovered and seized during the search operation. Further investigation is under progress, said the ED statement.
