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Frauds
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Monday said it has seized Rs 1.21 crore cash and gold and diamond jewellery worth more than Rs 5 crore after it raided some Nagpur-based persons in a money laundering case linked to alleged investment fraud that cheated numerous investors. The searches were launched on March 3 at 15 places in Nagpur and Mumbai and covered the premises of "main accused" Pankaj Mehadia, Lokesh Jain and Karthik Jain apart from main beneficiaries, it said in a statement. The money laundering case stems from a Nagpur Police FIR field against Pankaj Nandlal Mehadia, Lokesh Santosh Jain, Kartik Santosh Jain, Balmukund Lalchand Keyal, Premlata Nandlal Mehadia in a case of "fraud causing loss to investors in crores of rupees." "Pankaj Mehadia along with other accomplices was running a ponzi scheme and lured various investors by promising to give 12 per cent assured profit after deducting TDS on investments made from the year 2004 to 2017," it alleged. "Throughout the period
A 27-year old Indian-origin engineer at a crypto asset trading platform has pleaded guilty to charges of commodities fraud. Nishad Singh was the former co-lead engineer of FTX Trading Ltd. He is facing federal charges for his role in a multiyear scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX, the crypto trading platform started by Singh along with Samuel Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang. In December last year, federal authorities had charged Bankman-Fried with orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Singh Tuesday. In a parallel action, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also announced charges against Singh. Singh entered a guilty plea as to commodities fraud and other charges in the separate, parallel action against him in the Southern District of New York. According to the SEC's complaint, Singh created a software code that allowed FTX customer f
Cyber intelligence firm CloudSEK on Friday said it has come across 31,179 phone numbers impersonating as customer care helplines for fraudulent activities. The company analysed the numbers and found that 56 per cent, or 17,285, of them were Indian phone numbers, while the rest were non-Indian. "CloudSEK has decoded a widespread scam in India that involves the use of fake customer care numbers to defraud consumers. The scam involves creating fake customer care numbers for popular brands and posting them online, tricking unsuspecting consumers into calling these numbers for assistance," the company said in a statement. The company said that it has found 80 per cent of the Indian numbers were found to be valid and still operational. "CloudSEK XVigil's Fake Customer Care Number module scours the internet for fake customer care numbers. Our researcher analysed a sample of around 20,000 Indian mobile numbers, used by threat actors, to run customer care scams," the statement said. Accord
The transaction auditor of debt-ridden Srei has indicated a fresh fraud amounting to Rs 296 crore under the erstwhile promoters. As per the report prepared by the transaction auditor, the concerned transactions occurred during financial years 2014-2015 to 2021- 2022, Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd said in a regulatory filing. The fraud relates to certain disbursement made to a company called ARSS. The amount of Rs 295.69 crore is the gross outstanding, including principal and interest recoverable from the customer, as on September 30, 2021, on account of the suspect disbursement of loans, it added. Srei is undergoing insolvency resolution under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The administrator had appointed BDO India as a Transaction Auditor, which unearthed this fraud, it said, adding the application has been filed before the NCLT under Section 60(5) and Section 66 of the IBC on January 5, 2023. Earlier, the transaction advisor had flagged fraud transactions worth over
Since corporate frauds are inevitable to happen, principle and rule-based regulations are not effective remedy to curb such criminalities but more preventive measures are needed, a senior Sebi official said here on Thursday. Admitting that all companies, both publicly traded as well as privately held are vulnerable and susceptible to frauds, SK Mohanty, a whole-time member at the Securities and Exchange Board said the regulator is taking multiple measures to curb frauds and strengthening its enforcement mechanism. Addressing a seminar on corporate frauds organized by the industry lobby CII, he said diversion of funds leads to erosion of wealth for shareholders and also leads to ethical crisis and reputational risk for both regulators as well as regulated entities. Emphasising that frauds are neutral and can take place in any company irrespective of whether it is listed or not, and more so, in the wake of instances of digital data thefts and technological risks, Mohanty expressed ...