The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested cryptocurrency handler Lakshya Vij under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002 in connection with a money laundering investigation. He was produced in the PMLA-related special court of Delhi on Tuesday. Where the court has sent him on ED remand for 5 days. ED has taken this action on the basis of FIR registered against several accused for defrauding an American citizen.
According to the CBI FIR, the accused contacted an American woman and persuaded her to transfer her bank investments to a cryptocurrency account. The accused claimed that his existing account was not secure. The caller gained unauthorized remote access to her computer and created a cryptocurrency account in the victim’s name using her mobile number and email ID.
After this the woman was advised to transfer US$400,000 to the said cryptocurrency account. The woman did the same. But later when the victim woman logged in to her account, she found that her account was empty. Information about the victim’s complaint was given to the Indian authorities, on the basis of which CBI registered an FIR against some accused.
The ED investigation revealed that after transferring the defrauded amount of US$400,000 from the victim’s bank account to the crypto account, the Bitcoins were circulated among multiple wallets and transferred to other persons through multiple layers so that The money can be traced. After multiple transfers to the crypto wallet, the money from the crypto currency account was sent to the bank accounts of dummy entities and then, this money was sent in Indian currency to hundreds of individuals and entities through payment aggregators.
ED had conducted a search operation in this case on June 6, 2024 and collected many digital evidences. Statements of several persons were recorded under sections 17 and 50 of PMLA. These were the people whose wallets were used to transfer cryptocurrencies and bitcoins.
The evidence collected during the ED investigation revealed that Lakshya Vij was the person who was issuing instructions to transfer bitcoins to various persons. The directions were mainly issued through WhatsApp groups, copies of which were recovered by the ED. Lakshya Vij was found guilty of money laundering and was arrested in New Delhi on 22 July 2024. Now the team of ED’s Delhi regional office is investigating further in this matter.