The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested four accused on charges of money laundering in connection with the investigation into several cyber crime cases involving more than Rs 100 crore. Maqbool Abdul Rehman Doctor, Kashif Maqbool Doctor, Mahesh Mafatlal Desai and Om Rajendra Pandya were arrested under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The accused were produced before the special PMLA court in Ahmedabad. The court has sent him to five days’ ED custody for further investigation in this case.
ED Surat Sub-regional Office arrested the accused Maqbool Abdul Rehman Doctor and others after its investigation in the case initiated under PMLA, 2002, based on the First Information Report lodged under various sections of the Indian Justice Code, 2023, by the Special Operation Group of Surat Police on October 15, 2024.
In this case, the ED said that Maqbool Doctor, his sons Kashif Maqbool Doctor and Bassam Maqbool Doctor, Mahesh Desai, Om Rajendra Pandya and other associates have defrauded innocent people through various cyber frauds like digital arrest, forex trading, and threatened innocent persons by sending fake notices of law enforcement agencies like Supreme Court of India and ED.
The ED said that as per the investigation so far, the accused have been found involved in laundering of proceeds of crime (POC) worth more than Rs 100 crore. The ED said that as part of their modus operandi to launder the POC, the accused opened and arranged bank accounts in the name of their employees, associates and hired persons to collect and accumulate the proceeds of crime. Further, for operation of the bank accounts, the agency said that the accused used similar Pre-activated SIM cards were obtained using the methodology.
ED further said that during the investigation under PMLA, it has also been found that these accused have laundered money by converting POC into crypto currency (USDT) by routing the cash through various hawala operators to avoid regulatory scrutiny.