The CBI on Thursday conducted coordinated searches at 15 locations across multiple states in connection with a large-scale organised online investment and part-time job fraud involving offshore withdrawals and overseas fintech platforms, predominantly the Dubai-based “Pyypl”, the agency said.
Sources said the CBI would now seek custody of the alleged kingpin of the gang, Ashok Kumar Sharma, a chartered accountant who was recently arrested by the Enforcement Directorate.
Sharma was allegedly running a large-scale organised scam involving fraudulent investment schemes, cyber fraud and illicit cryptocurrency transactions, and also a part-time job scam involving offshore withdrawals and overseas fintech platforms from his office in Bijwasan on the Delhi-Gurgaon border.
Part of the proceeds of crime were also converted into cryptocurrency, the agency said. The case was referred to the CBI by the Union home ministry’s anti-cyber crime wing I4C. It was alleged that thousands of Indians were swindled out of crores of rupees through deceptive online schemes operated by an organised transnational fraud syndicate.
Sharma is suspected to have siphoned off approximately ₹900 crore during the past year alone. The proceeds of crime were consolidated into accounts linked to 15 shell companies and routed through two entities, the CBI said.