The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Mumbai has issued a provisional attachment order seizing cryptocurrency assets worth around Rs 2,385 crore in connection with the alleged OctaFX Forex Scam, officials said, adding that the mastermind in the case was held in Spain.
The action was taken under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, as part of an ongoing investigation into the illegal forex trading platform, OctaFX.
The ED revealed that Pavel Prozorov, the mastermind behind the scam, was arrested by Spanish police authorities in connection with cybercrimes across multiple countries, an official statement said on Friday.
The ED had launched its investigation following an FIR by Pune’s Shivaji Nagar Police Station. The complaint stated that investors were lured into putting money into OctaFX with promises of high returns through online forex trading, it said.
Investigations revealed that between July 2022 and April 2023, OctaFX duped Indian investors of nearly Rs 1,875 crore, generating around Rs 800 crore in profits during that period alone. Across operations from 2019 to 2024, the platform is estimated to have earned over Rs 5,000 crore from Indian investors, most of which was illegally sent abroad, they said.
OctaFX posed as a legitimate trading platform for currencies, commodities, and cryptocurrencies, despite having no permission from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In typical Ponzi scheme fashion, early investors were given small returns to gain trust and attract more clients, the official statement said.
It said that the probe uncovered a complex global network designed to dodge regulations. Different arms of the operation were based in countries like Spain, Estonia, Georgia, Cyprus, Dubai, Singapore, and the British Virgin Islands (BVI). These entities handled everything from marketing and technical support to payment processing and fund laundering.
OctaFX allegedly manipulated trades by using fake charts and causing intentional “slippage” to ensure clients made losses. It also ran a referral programme where Introducing Brokers (IBs) earned large commissions for bringing in new investors, the statement further said.
Indian investors’ funds were collected using UPI and local bank transfers, often routed through dummy companies and mule accounts. Unauthorised payment aggregators helped disguise the transactions as normal online purchases. Eventually, the funds were transferred abroad in the name of fake software and R&D imports to shell firms controlled by Prozorov in several countries, an official press release said.
Some of the laundered money returned to India disguised as foreign direct investment (FDI), while the rest was spent on luxury assets, including a yacht, real estate, and expansion of OctaFX operations worldwide. A portion of the illicit wealth was parked in cryptocurrency wallets under Prozorov’s control, it said.
So far, the ED has attached assets worth Rs 2,681 crore, including 19 immovable properties and a luxury yacht in Spain. The ED has already filed a Prosecution Complaint and a Supplementary Complaint against OctaFX and 54 other accused persons/entities, which has been accepted by the Special PMLA Court.
Further investigations are ongoing, officials said.
