ED searches in 'fake' bank guarantee racket; Anil Ambani group company under radar
New Delhi (PTI): The Enforcement Directorate on Friday conducted searches against an Odisha-based company that allegedly ran a "fake" bank guarantee issuance racket for business groups, including providing an alleged Rs 68 crore such assurance for a Reliance Group company, official sources said.
The money laundering case is against a Bhubaneswar located company named Biswal Tradelink and its directors.
The ED case, filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), stems from a November, 2024 FIR of the Delhi Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW).
The ED, the sources said, conducted searches at three premises of the company on Friday at Bhubaneswar and one "associate" entity in Kolkata.
Agency sources alleged that the company was engaged in the activity of issuance of "fake" bank guarantees against a commission of 8 per cent.
Sources said a bank guarantee of Rs 68.2 crore submitted to Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) on behalf of Reliance NU BESS Limited (a subsidiary of Reliance Power)/Maharashtra Energy Generation Limited was found to be "fake".
The ED seized some documents related to this transaction during the last week searches against Anil Ambani led Reliance Group companies in Mumbai, they said.
Suspicious financial transactions with multiple companies have been traced and this is being investigated, the sources said.
It was found that the Odisha-based company was using a email domain--s-bi.co.in-- instead of the original sbi.co.in to create a "facade" of genuineness that the communication is being sent by the State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender.
The fake domain was used to send "forged" communication to SECI, impersonating the SBI, the sources said.
It is understood that the ED has written to the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) seeking domain registration details of the fake email domain.
The ED's preliminary investigation, as per the sources, has indicated that the Odisha company has also facilitated "fake" bills for commission and uses multiple "undisclosed" bank accounts.
Suspicious transactions worth crores of rupees has been done through these bank accounts, they said.
The Odisha company is a "mere paper entity" as its registered office is a residential property belonging to a relative and no company records were found at the address during the searches, the sources said.
The agency sources claimed that key individuals of the company were using the Telegram app in a 'disappearing messages' enabled mode in order to "conceal" their communications.
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Bank account in Ramgarh tracked for fraudulent fund transactions across 24 states, 4 arrested
Ramgarh (Jharkhand) (PTI): Jharkhand police on Thursday said it has unearthed a network of interstate cyber frauds and arrested four miscreants for fraudulent transactions through a bank account in Ramgarh district after complaints of 274 suspected transactions in 24 states.
The states where complaints for fraudulent transactions were registered included Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
The action followed inputs received through 'Samanvaya portal', a centralised, web-based platform launched by the Union Home Ministry to curb cybercrime.
"We arrested four cyber miscreants after a current account with Kuju (Ramgarh) branch of the State Bank of India was found to have registered suspected financial transactions in 24 states with the help of the Pratibimba portal of the Home Ministry through the Samanvaya portal," Ramgarh Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar Lunayat said.
During the probe, police found that the account was opened under the MSME Udyam Registration scheme in the name of Shree Ganesh Enterprises, he said.
The account had been linked to as many as 274 complaints from different states related to cyber fraud and illegal fund transfers.
The registered proprietors of the enterprise were identified as Rahul Gupta (37), Ravi Kumar Verma (34), and Ajay Sharma (33), all residents of Ramgarh district, a statement from the Ramgarh police said.
During interrogation, Rahul Gupta and Ravi Kumar Verma revealed that they had opened multiple current accounts at the behest of Ritesh Agrawal alias Munna (40) and Sonu Kumar Jha (34).
They admitted receiving Rs 1.2 lakh in exchange for facilitating the opening of these accounts.
"The accused further confessed to sharing OTPs, activating mobile banking services, and handing over control of the accounts to the main operators through WhatsApp and Telegram groups. These accounts were then allegedly used to route fraudulent transactions.
Police said mobile data analysis of the accused led to the recovery of crucial digital evidence, including details of SIM cards, bank accounts, passbooks, ATM cards, QR code scanners, Aadhaar cards, and PAN cards shared through messaging platforms.
A total of four accused have been arrested so far and sent to judicial custody.
A case has been registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 and Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Further investigation is underway, the police said.
