In a crackdown against call centre frauds targeting US nationals, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached immovable properties worth Rs 90.21 crore in Gurugram and other areas and filed a charge sheet against eight accused, an official said on Thursday.
The ED's Gurugram Zonal Office, filed a charge sheet on February 10 before a Special Court (PMLA) in Gurugram against the accused under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, following the arrest of Chandra Prakash Gupta, one of the key conspirator of this case.
The charge sheet was filed under Sections 44 and 45 of the PMLA for the offence of money laundering as defined under Section 3, read with Section 70, and punishable under Section 4 of the PMLA, 2002, against CSPRO Technology (OPC) Private Limited, Chandra Prakash Gupta, and other persons including Aakash Kumar Dubey, Pankaj Kumar Jha, and several employees.
The investigation was initiated on the basis of an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Delhi.The ED investigation conducted under PMLA, revealed that from 2021 to 2024, illegal call centres were being operated from Delhi, Noida and Gurugram.
"These call centres targeted foreign nationals, mainly citizens of the United States of America, by impersonating officials of reputed technology companies such as Microsoft," the ED said."In the process of defrauding, victims were deceived through fake pop-up alerts displayed on their computer screens and were falsely informed that their systems had been compromised," the ED added.
"Under the pretext of providing technical support, the accused induced the victims to download remote access software, through which unauthorised access was gained to their computers and online banking accounts and subsequent wire transfer of funds to various accounts based at Hong Kong, resulting in large-scale financial fraud," the central probe agency said.
"The Proceeds of Crime were initially transferred to foreign bank accounts, various crypto accounts/wallets, and subsequently brought to India through hawala channels in cash," it added.These funds were further layered and integrated into the domestic financial system through a complex web of shell entities by way of issuing bogus invoices, the ED said.
The ED investigation revealed that CSPRO Technology (OPC) Private Limited in Noida, and later Innonet Technology (OPC) Private Limited in Gurugram, were being used as front companies to operate the illegal call centres."
The key masterminds and main beneficiaries of the scam were identified as Abhinav Kalra, Arjun Gulati and Divyansh Goel, with active involvement of Chandra Prakash Gupta, who managed the day-to-day operations of the call centres, including supervision of calls, coordination with other conspirators and handling of technical infrastructure," the ED said.
The Special Court (PMLA) in Gurugram had issued non-bailable warrants against all three aforesaid key accused persons as they are absconding from the investigation, the ED added.