PremiumThe ED investigation claimed that the investors’ money was not invested in any of the trading activities as promised and arrested persons had diverted a sizeable portion of the money through various business entities
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said it has arrested four persons including three directors of a private firm in connection with a case connected to cheating the public of Rs108 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 remanded them to 12 days in custody.
According to an official release, the ED initiated its probe on the basis of multiple first information reports (FIRs) registered by the Tamil Nadu police against Bluemax Capital Solutions Pvt. Ltd, its directors and others across Tamil Nadu state during the years 2020 and 2021.
It was alleged that the complainants were cheated by Bluemax Capital Solutions Pvt. Ltd who promised them high returns and made them invest their hard-earned money in trading foreign exchange (forex), commodities and gold.
“The general public has been cheated to the tune of around ₹108 crore," the release said.
“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 release alleged.
The ED investigation claimed that the investors’ money was not invested in any of the trading activities as promised and that the above-mentioned arrested persons had diverted a sizeable portion of the money through various business entities.
“They invested in new businesses in their names or their wives’ names and also invested in cryptocurrencies clandestinely. It was also seen that all three directors have together started companies and bank accounts in the name of M/s. Bluemax Global Ltd in offshore locations mainly in UAE, Hong Kong, Belize and UK and stashed money in them," the ED release said.