ED in pursuit of middleman who made ₹50 crore

The Enforcement Directorate is in pursuit of Sukhminder Sodhi, an alleged middleman in a ?2,500-crore betting-hawala racket. Sodhi is accused of selling Super Master log-in IDs of a UK-based betting site to bookies. He is currently based in Dubai and has allegedly pocketed around ?50 crore from the proceeds of the crime. The ED has confiscated his overseas assets worth ?50 crore. Sodhi is believed to be actively involved in illegal online betting and received money through hawala channels. A non-bailable warrant was issued against him in 2015.

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is in pursuit of a city resident, Sukhminder Sodhi, the alleged middleman who sold Super Master log-in IDs of a UK-based betting site at the rate of around ₹2.4 crore per ID to a case accused for use by bookies allegedly involved in the ₹2,500-crore betting-hawala racket orchestrated from Gujarat and involving several bookies, including from Mumbai. The suspect is currently said to be based in Dubai.

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The Super Master login IDs facilitated the creation of a further 310 accounts for accessing the British betting site, Betfair, whose operation is legal in the UK. Sodhi, who was recently named in a chargesheet filed by the ED in an Ahmedabad special court, allegedly pocketed around ₹50 crore of the total proceeds of crime in the case, an ED official said. A non-bailable warrant was issued against him in 2015.

Sodhi allegedly received the proceeds of the crime outside India through hawala channels, and the money was subsequently integrated into the financial system, said the ED’s chargesheet, a copy of which is with HT. The ED has so far confiscated Sodhi’s overseas assets worth ₹50 crore.

Referring to the usage of SIM cards, which were procured on the basis of dubious documents, the chargesheet elaborated upon the racket ‘s modus operandi: “The accused in this case constructed a criminal conspiracy to get SIM cards for running the betting activity… and in association with each other had obtained ID proof in respect of the third party people without their knowledge… On the basis of the same, they made bogus signatures in the application forms to purchase the sim cards... and activated (them) in mobiles to commit the criminal activity of betting on cricket matches ...with bookies/ punters across the country and abroad.”

Kumar, who is a co-accused in the money-laundering case, told the ED that he was the main distributor of the Super Master login IDs of the UK-based betting site in India, and that he procured them from Sodhi at the rate of ₹2.4 crore per ID.

“The cash used to be delivered to some Angadia person (money carrier), as per Sodhi ‘s instructions to Kumar, for further transfer out of India,” said an ED official. “Every super master login ID was able to create and cater to at least 310 accounts, as each of them came with the provision of creating 10 master login IDs and every master login ID could accommodate 30 further client IDs.”

The agency had earlier summoned Sodhi thrice in 2015 but he failed to join the money-laundering probe. “He was aware that further investigation / production of evidence / documents etc would go against him,” says the chargesheet. The ED officer told HT that a non-bailable warrant had been issued against the accused but was pending for execution since 2015, as he was not traceable.

The agency recently also charge-sheeted bookie Anil Jaisinghani, a resident of Ulhasnagar, in the case. Jaisinghani had refuted all the allegations.

The ED probe begun after the receipt of special intelligence that led to searches on March 19, 2015 at a Vadodara farmhouse on suspicions that it was the hub of a large-scale hawala racket in international cricket through the UK-based website, Betfair.com, in contravention of Foreign Exchange Management Act regulations. Later, the agency registered a money-laundering case, based on the police case, with a view to identifying the proceeds of the crime and its recipients.

The ED chargesheet stated that four accused in the case had allegedly formed a partnership, Maruti Ahmedabad, for betting on cricket matches. They had rented a farmhouse, where they and their employees watched the live broadcasts of international cricket matches and through mobile phones and the UK-based website conducted betting activities with the help of bookies in the country and abroad.