ED arrests three more in Rs 30,000 crore cyber fraud-linked money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested three more people in a money laundering probe linked to a pan-India cyber fraud involving transactions worth Rs 30,000 crore. The latest arrests take the total to five as investigators trace an extensive network of alleged shell companies

Panaji: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested three more people as part of its investigation into a money laundering case linked to a pan-India cyber fraud involving transactions worth Rs 30,000 crore, sources said on Friday.

With this, the total number of arrests made in the case by the central agency’s Panaji office has risen to five. Two people from Mumbai were arrested earlier this week.

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According to sources, Bhushan Suryakant Moye, Vilas Narayan Pawar and Shailesh Dagdu were taken into custody on Thursday under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). A special court in Panaji has sent them to ED custody till September 1.

On August 23, the ED arrested Fahim Moin Hussain Sayed and Naim Mueen Sayyed, who remain in its custody.

In a statement, the agency said its probe began after the Goa Police registered an FIR on June 9, 2025. The case pertained to a Goa-based woman who was allegedly placed under digital arrest by cyber fraudsters and duped into transferring Rs 2.60 crore to certain “Secret Supervision Accounts” between May 21 and June 2, 2025.

Digital arrest is a form of cybercrime in which fraudsters posing as law enforcement officials threaten people through audio or video calls, virtually holding them hostage and pressuring them into transferring money online.

The government has clarified that “digital arrest” is not legally recognised in India and that such crimes should be immediately reported through the national cyber helpline, 1930, or on the cybercrime.gov.in portal.

The agency found that the money allegedly defrauded from the Goa-based woman was deposited in 400 bank accounts, withdrawn in cash and then converted into foreign currency through RBI-licensed money changers.

Agency officials said the money trail in the case led to an “interconnected” network of commodity trading, travel and forex entities that undertook banking transactions worth more than Rs 27,850 crore and received Rs 2,904 crore in cash deposits, including Rs 584.70 crore through 61,448 bulk note acceptance machine transactions across multiple locations in the country.

The bank accounts of these entities have been found to be linked to as many as 300 cyber fraud complaints and 163 FIRs filed across 20 states and Union Territories, involving an aggregate reported loss of Rs 417.49 crore, the ED said.

The agency conducted two rounds of searches in Goa and Mumbai in July and the latest round on August 21, seizing about Rs 3.25 crore in cash.

The ED probe found that the shell or dummy companies had named drivers and employees living in single-room accommodations as their directors, a classic modus operandi in such cases.