NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided 12 premises in Nagpur, Gondia and Ahmedabad on August 18 in connection with a money laundering probe into an online gaming and betting fraud involving allegedly manipulated platforms such as Diamondexchange.com, wolf777.com and world777.com, officials said on Friday.
The raids were carried out at the premises of accused Anant Navratran Jain, alias Sontu Jain, and his associates under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The federal probing agency started its investigation based on an FIR registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station in Nagpur City against Jain and others.
The agency said Jain induced a complainant to invest heavily in online gaming by promising high returns and directed him to platforms including Diamondexch, Indianexch, Lotusbook and World777.
The complainant was allegedly pushed to keep depositing funds despite mounting losses, with the platforms purportedly rigged so that technical glitches surfaced whenever he neared a win, preventing him from collecting on bets. The complainant was defrauded of approximately Rs 58.42 crore, the agency said.
The federal probing agency said the proceeds from the racket were funnelled through multiple channels — cash handed over via couriers using hawala style "token" notes for identification, or bank transfers to "agent accounts" designated by Jain.
Several mule accounts held in the names of different persons and entities were allegedly used to receive, layer and launder the funds. Transactions running into several crores were either withdrawn in cash or remitted abroad under the guise of import payments, the ED said.
During the August 18 searches, the agency seized Rs 30.30 lakh in cash and froze more than 100 bank accounts. Mutual funds and shares worth an aggregate of about Rs 5 crore were also frozen.
Two bank lockers and three luxury vehicles valued at around Rs 1.70 crore were also seized, along with 11 mobile phones and a laptop containing digital evidence of the gaming operations and financial transactions. Documents relating to immovable properties worth approximately Rs 16.50 crore were seized as well.