Delhi: Five held for running investment fraud

Delhi Police bust gang involved in ₹125 crore investment fraud, arrest five. Masterminds based in Philippines and Dubai. Shell companies used for transactions.

The Delhi Police on Tuesday said they busted a gang involved in an elaborate investment fraud, involving total transactions of about ₹125 crore, and arrested five people. The masterminds of the crime, however, are based in the Philippines and Dubai, they added.

The cyber branch of the Delhi Police (central) began investigating the case in June when a Delhi-based businessman submitted a complaint and said he ended up losing the ₹30 lakh he invested. (HT Photo)

Police identified the arrested men as Vivek Kumar Singh, 33, Manish Kumar, 23, Suhel Akaram, 32, Gaurav Sharma, 23, and Balram Pandit, 27.

Additional deputy commissioner of police (central) Sachin Sharma said that the gang lured people into investing money through channels on the messaging app Telegram. The victims would receive substantial returns on their initial investments, prompting them to invest bigger amounts.

The cyber branch of the Delhi Police (central) began investigating the case in June when a Delhi-based businessman submitted a complaint and said he ended up losing the ₹30 lakh he invested, while his initial investment was a meagre ₹1,000.

During the probe, police found that the money was transferred to 25 separate bank accounts. These current bank accounts were opened using the details of dozens of shell companies — 11 such fake companies were found registered to a single address in west Delhi’s Nangal Raya, police said.

According to the police, the gang targeted people by nominating them as directors of these shell companies and paid them a small sum of money for their approval. They used fake documents to open the shell companies, Verma added. “The bank accounts recorded a daily transaction of over ₹1 crore,” the officer said.