ED conducts searches on FFMCs, books several outlets for violations

The Enforcement Directorate has booked several Full Fledged Money Changers in Hyderabad for operating without valid RBI licences. Despite surrendering their licences earlier this year, some firms continued illegal forex operations using forged documents.

Hyderabad: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Hyderabad team which recently carried out searches at various Full Fledged Money Changers (FFMCs) firms, booked them for allegedly operating illegally without any valid licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

These searches were carried out on Prism Forex Private Limited, Garuda Forex Services Private Limited, Sree Vimal Nath Forex Private Limited, Victory Forex & Travel Services Private Limited and Digital Forex Private Limited on October 16.

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Earlier, RBI Hyderabad had conducted inspections at such FFMCs and found several irregularities such as KYC documents without corresponding travel tickets, false traveller names, forged flight tickets, manipulation in dates of flights and flight numbers, mismatch in signatures of customers, among others.

Also, multiple copies of the same travel ticket were recovered with key details forged therein. Sales were shown mostly against travel to common destinations like Indonesia, Maldives, Thailand, and Sri Lanka where visa is not required. RBI inspection led to the surrender of RBI licences by the FFMCs in June-July 2025.

ED investigation revealed that even after the surrender of RBI licence, some FFMCs were continuing to operate and engage in illegal money changing business, displaying forged RBI licence in their premises.

Searches resulted in the recovery of incriminating documents, mobile phones and laptops containing records of illegal foreign currency dealings. Searches also led to the seizure of unaccounted Indian currency to the tune of Rs 11.9 lakh and foreign currency of various countries in various denominations equivalent to Rs. 26.77 lakh.

The investigation is under progress.