Overview

• Navab Hassan was produced before a Special PMLA Court that granted the Enforcement Directorate nine days of custody after his arrest under the PMLA.
• The money-laundering case stems from multiple FIRs across Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Assam alleging a multi-state pyramid fraud using QFX, YFX, BotBro, BotAlpha, Crossalpha and Minecrypto.
• Investigators say the scheme pitched 5–6% monthly returns through AI-bot forex trading, took deposits via payment aggregators and USDT, deleted investor IDs and halted payouts after a few months.
• The ED alleges proceeds were routed to the UAE for property purchases and luxury spending while operations were coordinated with Dubai-based mastermind Lavish Chaudhary, also known as Nawab.
• The probe has frozen Rs 391 crore across 185 bank accounts, provisionally attached 45 properties worth Rs 9.49 crore, recovered Rs 94.23 lakh from Hassan’s residence, and earlier arrested top agent Harinder Pal Singh on September 17.