ED Freezes Rs 80 Crore in OctaFx Money Laundering Case

The Enforcement Directorate has frozen over Rs 80 crore in bank deposits and demat holdings following raids on the OctaFx Trading App and website for alleged money laundering in a Rs 500 crore scam. The illegal forex trading platform exploited investors and funneled illicit funds through various shell companies and complex transactions.

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday announced that it has frozen bank deposits and demat holdings worth more than Rs 80 crore after conducting searches in a money laundering case linked to the operations of an 'illegal' online forex trading platform alleged to have defrauded investors of Rs 500 crore.

The raids were executed on July 22 in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, and Gurugram in the case involving the OctaFx Trading App and its website, www.octaFx.com.

According to the federal agency, funds deceitfully obtained from investors under the guise of forex trading on OctaFx were funneled into SEBI-registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) as investments to present them as legitimate. Entities based in the British Virgin Islands and Estonia were used to transfer these funds for promotional activities to lure investors.

This has been allegedly corroborated by celebrities and production houses participating in OctaFx's promotional campaigns across different platforms. Statements from television actors have also been recorded as part of the investigation.

OctaFx reportedly established several 'shell' companies, using their bank accounts under the pretense of facilitating forex trading. These entities layered funds through fraudulent e-commerce websites to circumvent payment gateway restrictions and disguise the true nature of incoming funds.

Technical experts were employed to create a payment aggregator to bypass beneficial owner regulations, enabling OctaFx to misappropriate funds from unsuspecting investors. The ED probe found that OctaFx was operating in India in collaboration with OctaFx India Private Limited, cheating investors and earning over Rs 1,000 crore from the Indian region alone. These funds were then layered through complex transactions and remitted abroad under false pretenses.

The ED's case stems from a Pune Police FIR alleging that the app and its promoters lured numerous investors with promises of high returns. Movable properties, including bank deposits and demat account holdings worth about Rs 80.43 crore, have been frozen, with various incriminating documents and digital devices seized during the latest searches. The total attachment of properties in this case now stands at Rs 118 crore.

(With inputs from agencies.)