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Torres Ponzi scheme case: The Mumbai unit of the Enforcement Directorate that is probing the case pertaining to the money laundering in the Torres Ponzi scheme conducted raids at 13 locations including ten in Mumbai and three in Jaipur on Thursday. The agency had registered an Enforcement Case Investigation Report (ECIR) on January 13 after Mumbai police registered a case of cheating and arrested three individuals.
The ED’s case is based on the FIR registered by the Mumbai’s Shivaji Park police station in which the complainant, vegetable vendor Vaishya, 31, has claimed that 1.25 lakh people invested money in the Torres company. Initially, the police’s FIR stated an amount of Rs 13.85 crore of 66 investors. Later, the case was transferred to the Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing, who revealed that more than 2,000 investors came forward and gave details of their investments worth Rs 37 crore.
The EOW has arrested Tazagul Xasatov, a Uzbekistan national, Valentina Ganesh Kumar, a Russian OCI and Sarvesh Surve, who worked as senior executives in the firm. EOW has also arrested alleged hawala operators Alpesh Khara.
The police have also issued blue corner notices against eight absconding Ukrainians and a Turkish national.
The central agency has scrutinised money transactions including the foreign remittance of Platinum Hern Pvt Ltd, the parent company of Torres, since its inception in February 2023 and on the basis of its finding, the ED conducted searches at 13 locations in Mumbai and Jaipur.
As per officials, the alleged whistleblowers have claimed that the investors were encouraged to make investments in cash. The cash was later centrally collected at Dadar and through alleged hawala operators would be converted into USDT (crypto currency) to be illegally sent abroad.
The whistleblowers have claimed that the Ukrainian masterminds of the Torres fraud case are suspected to have sent Rs 200 crore abroad and the agency is probing the claim.
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