INDIA. Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday stated that it had arrested four persons, including three directors of a Chennai-based firm, on charges of duping investors to the tune of Rs 308 crore by giving false promises of heavy returns on their investment.
The ED, in a press release, stated that-R Aravinth, S. Gopalakrishnan, S. Bharathraj, the Directors of M/s. Bluemax Capital Solutions Pvt. Ltd (BCSPL) and their associate J. Amarnath were arrested and sent to ED custody by PMLA court last month.
The Tamil Nadu police registered multiple FIRs against the BCSPL, its directors, and others during the years 2020 and 2021. The FIRs were registered based on the complaints received from the investors that they were cheated under the pretext of investing their money in trading of forex (the foreign exchange market), commodities, gold, etc., for promised higher returns.
The investors were cheated of Rs. 108 crores. The investigations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 revealed that the directors of the company had created a website of the company with false features that falsely showed real-time forex trading with the investors’ money.
The company’s modus operandi was that once a person invested money, he/she would be provided with an account. The website of the company was designed in such a way that when a person logged into their account, it would show statements falsely depicting real-time forex trading being done regularly in the accounts.
The website was designed to mislead investors by falsely depicting genuine trading in forex, commodities through trading charts, etc., which duped the investors into thinking that their money was being indeed invested in trading, and fictitious account statements with Profit and Loss were provided per month.
In October 2019, the directors had deliberately staged a false hacking of their company server and thereafter informed the investors that their money was lost in trading. They had then made token repayments of part money to a few investors leaving others high and dry.
ED Investigation showed that, in reality, the investor’s money was not invested in any of the trading activities as promised. The accused had diverted a sizeable portion of the investor’s money through various business entities and invested in new businesses in their names or their spouses names.
They had also clandestinely invested money in cryptocurrencies.
It was also observed that the three directors floated companies and opened bank accounts in the name of M/s. Bluemax Global Ltd in offshore locations, mainly in UAE, Hong Kong, Belize, and UK, and stashed money in them.
They had also started various businesses and opened bank accounts in their names and in the names of other unrelated persons in foreign countries to commit fraud and cheating similarly. Further investigation is in progress.
BCSPL was incorporated on July 23, 2014, and was registered at the Registrar of Companies, Chennai, as a Non-Government Company. Its authorized share and paid-up capital were shown as a total of Rs. Two lakhs.
The company held its last Annual General Meeting on September 27, 2018, and as per records from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), its balance sheet was last filed on March 31, 2018.
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