The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has attached movable assets worth ₹2.77 crore, including cryptocurrency worth ₹18.05 lakh and shares of ₹4.17 lakh, under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in the Power Bank app-related scam.
The ED initiated the investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by Cyber Crime Police Station, CID, Bengaluru, in June 2021 against 13 accused entities under various sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and under Indian Penal Code.
Investigation revealed that the accused entities registered themselves with payment aggregators purporting that they were running businesses in the category of gaming, social networking, and e-commerce whereas the public was induced to invest their money through many schemes run in the name of Power Bank and Sunfactory app offering rate of interest up to 18% to be paid on daily and weekly basis.
As per the information received from the CID, 13 accused involved in the scam had collected nearly ₹342 crore from the public within three months — during March to May 2021. After collecting the amount from investors, the accused escaped without paying any returns .The officials earlier arrested the prime accused, Anas Ahmed, and recovered properties worth ₹40.6 crore from him.
