The sleuths seized Rs 80 lakh cash, foreign currency valued at Rs 1.24 crore, gold worth Rs 1.3 crore and documents relating to immovable properties estimated at around Rs 14 crore.
The ED also froze more than 400 bank accounts allegedly used to route the proceeds of crime and recovered about 100 rubber stamps of shell companies suspected to have facilitated the laundering of the funds.
“The money laundering investigation is based on a cyber fraud in which a Goa-based senior citizen was allegedly duped of Rs 2.6 crore after fraudsters posed as officials of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI),” it said.
The victim was allegedly contacted through a series of phone calls and WhatsApp messages and falsely informed that he was under investigation. The fraudsters then threatened him with a fabricated ‘digital arrest’ and coerced into transferring large sums of money to bank accounts controlled by the syndicate.
The ED is further investigating the money trail, the network of shell companies allegedly used to conceal the proceeds of crime, and the identities of those involved in operating the fraudulent accounts.
