Five, including CA, arrested for cyber frauds
Vadodara, May 2, 2023
Cybercrime sleuths have busted a gang of cyber frauds and arrested five men, including a chartered accountant, for duping people in connivance with a Chinese gang. Police said that the accused duped dozens of people and siphoned the money by opening about 10 shell companies and many more bank accounts.
“This is an international racket where some Indians connived with a Chinese gang to cheat people and earn crores in days. The money that was siphoned from the victims was rotated to several bank accounts and then sent abroad through cryptocurrency,” said Hardik Makadia, ACP (cybercrime), Vadodara.
One of the key accused, Umang Patel, is believed to be the mastermind of the scam. Patel, who has worked as an accountant in the past, came in contact with a Chinese gang on Telegram last year. He learnt about the internet frauds and began floating shell companies. Patel opened several bank accounts in the name of these shell companies and he also used identity documents of other people to open bank accounts.
The police said that he had opened 30 current and savings accounts and gave control of these accounts to a Chinese gang. The bank accounts of the shell firms that the police accessed had transactions worth Rs 10 crore within just a few months. And Patel’s bank account had transactions worth Rs 52 lakh.
“He even went to Malaysia in March this year to meet the Chinese gang. A lady employee accompanying him filmed the Chinese men. We have got their images,” Makadia told TOI.
Another accused, Shoaib Patel, a resident of Surat, used to transfer the siphoned money to different shell firms and then sent it abroad through another accused Ahamdullah Ibrahim.
Ibrahim, a Madarsa teacher in Surat, used to help in converting the money to cryptocurrency with the help of other two accused — Amit Goyal, a chartered accountant, and Nitin Patel, an employee of an angadia firm. While Goyal transferred the cryptocurrency, Patel used to give cash to Goyal in lieu of the cryptocurrency transferred.
All the Indians were working for this Chinese gang on the basis of commission and they had their roles carved out to ensure that the scam was executed smoothly.
[The Times of India]
