Ahmedabad cybercrime on July 11 nabbed 13, including two key-accused, over their association in a cyber fraud involving the opening of bank accounts to deposit illicit money into them and then converting that money into cryptocurrency to send it to Chinese operatives.
Acting on a tip-off received by Police Inspector (PI) P H Makwana, the police raided an office at Maruti Plaza near Vijay Park crossroads in Krishnanagar, Ahmedabad.
Cyber fraud through crypto
During the raid, 13 people were nabbed and interrogated by police, which revealed the details of a complex cyber fraud.
The accused, Dilip Jagani of Nikol and Dipak Radadiya of Hirawadi would open bank accounts of people by threatening them or by offering them high returns in stock markets.
They would pass on the details of the bank accounts to another accused named Ketan Patel of Gandhinagar.
The bank details were sent to Chinese associates, who would deposit illicit funds into those accounts.
Jagani and Radadiya would then withdraw the money through ‘self’ cheques, and the money would be channelled to Darsheel Shah.
Shah would turn the money into cryptocurrency and transfer it back to the Chinese associates.
The initial investigation revealed that Jagani and Radadiya were receiving a 3% cut of the money converted to cryptocurrency.
Police have seized 30 passbooks, 39 chequebooks, 59 ATM cards, forms for opening bank accounts, and accounting ledgers from the site.