The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Navab Hassan, a Uttar Pradesh-based agent, for his central role in orchestrating the sprawling QFX Ponzi scheme, which defrauded thousands of investors across India. Following his arrest on Thursday, a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court remanded Hassan to ED custody for nine days. This marks the second arrest in the case within a week, following the apprehension of Harinder Pal Singh on September 17, as the ED intensifies its crackdown on a scam that has siphoned off over Rs 400 crore through deceptive multi-level marketing tactics.
The QFX scam, operating under aliases such as YFX, BotBro, BotAlpha, Crossalpha, and Minecrypto, lured investors with promises of 5-6% monthly returns through alleged AI-driven forex trading platforms. The ED’s investigation, triggered by multiple FIRs filed in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Assam, revealed a classic Ponzi structure: no actual trading occurred, and investor dashboards displayed fictitious balances. Funds collected via payment aggregators and cryptocurrencies like USDT were diverted to Dubai, where they were laundered into real estate and luxury purchases through associates of the mastermind, Lavish Chaudhary, alias Nawab. The scheme collapsed when new investor funds dried up, leading to deleted accounts and halted payouts.
Hassan, a self-styled ‘Blue Diamond Executive,’ built a network of over 10,000 investors, primarily in western Uttar Pradesh, by collecting cash and channeling it through digital payment systems and USDT. He maintained close ties with Chaudhary, frequently traveling to the UAE and participating in Zoom calls to instill confidence in prospective investors. ED sources disclosed that Hassan admitted no genuine forex trading took place, confirming the platform’s reliance on new investments to sustain payouts. His planned trip to Dubai at the time of arrest further underscores his deep involvement with the scam’s international operations, which Singh, the earlier arrestee, identified him as leading in the region.
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The ED’s proactive measures have disrupted the syndicate’s financial operations, with searches conducted on February 11 and July 4 freezing Rs 391 crore across 185 bank accounts linked to shell companies like QFX Trade Ltd, Npay Box Pvt Ltd, and others. Additional asset attachments in August, valued at Rs 9.31 crore, targeted properties held by agents and their kin. These actions have curtailed the syndicate’s ability to further obscure illicit gains, which were layered into offshore investments. As the investigation progresses, the ED aims to pursue absconding figures like Chaudhary, signaling a robust response to Ponzi schemes exploiting retail investors’ trust in digital-age financial promises.
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