Overview
- The Enforcement Directorate arrested Sohel Akhtar, also known as Raju, in Kolkata on September 28 and obtained ED custody remand through October 6 to question him under the PMLA.
- ED says Akhtar acted as a ‘principal handler’ who controlled Riglo Ventures bank accounts and recruited people to open mule accounts that received and moved illicit funds.
- Investigators say fraudsters impersonated CBI and judicial officials to extort Rs 7 crore from industrialist S.P. Oswal, with Rs 4 crore routed to Frozenman Warehousing & Logistics and Rs 3 crore to Riglo Ventures.
- Forensic tracing by the ED found phones loaded with APKs and SIMs that allowed remote OTP access, rapid transfers via an app called AMMFORWARD, conversion to virtual digital assets and commissions paid through crypto accounts including Binance to foreign associates in Nepal, Cambodia and Vietnam.
- The ED has already filed a prosecution complaint, provisionally attached Rs 1.76 crore of assets and continues cross‑border and crypto tracing, a probe that could expose wider mule recruitment networks and further asset recoveries.