NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested two people in connection with a money-laundering probe linked to a "digital arrest" cyber-fraud case in Goa, in which the accused allegedly ran a network that converted cyber-fraud proceeds into foreign currency through RBI-licensed money changers, the agency said on Monday.
Fahim Moin Hussain Sayed and Naim Mueen Sayyed were arrested on August 23 in Goa and were produced before the Special Court (PMLA).
The federal probing agency started the probe based on an FIR registered on June 9, 2025, at the Cyber Crime Police Station, North Goa, in which a Goa resident was coerced through a "digital arrest" scam into transferring Rs 2.60 crore between May 21 and June 2, 2025, into accounts falsely described to her as "Secret Supervision Accounts."
According to the ED, the money did not stop with the fraudsters but entered "an organised apparatus" that converted the proceeds first into cash and then into foreign currency using companies holding Reserve Bank of India licences as Full Fledged Money Changers.
Investigators said the victim's funds were routed within hours through a first layer of dormant and newly opened bank accounts and fragmented across more than 400 beneficiary accounts.
The trail led to an interconnected network of commodity trading, travel and forex entities that together conducted banking transactions exceeding Rs 27,850 crore and deposited approximately Rs 2,904 crore in cash — including Rs 584.70 crore through 61,448 transactions via Bulk Note Acceptance Machines at multiple locations, the agency said.
The accounts of these entities are under the scanner in 330 victim complaints and 163 FIRs registered across 20 states and Union Territories, involving an aggregate reported loss of Rs 417.49 crore, the ED said.
In 101 of these complaints, funds from a single victim were routed into two or more entities within the same network during the course of one fraud, it added.
The federal probing agency carried out raids at 20 premises in Mumbai and Goa on July 17, and at further premises on August 21. The agency seized cash worth Rs 3.25 crore, along with digital devices, records and statutory registers, which are under examination, officials said.
The agency said that the companies used to route the proceeds were incorporated in the names of persons of modest means, including employees, drivers and residents of single-room tenements, who were shown as directors on paper, while the accounts and affairs of the companies remained under the control of others.
