Hyderabad Police Bust 712-Cr Investment Fraud with Links to Hezbollah Terror Financing
Hyderabad police have arrested nine individuals for their alleged involvement in a Rs 712-crore investment fraud reportedly orchestrated by Chinese citizens based in Dubai.
The police have linked a portion of the illegally obtained funds to the foreign terrorist organization Hezbollah.
What Is Hezbollah?
Hezbollah, meaning ‘Party of Allah’ or ‘Party of God’, a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, has been led by Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992.
It operates under two main wings – the Jihad Council, a paramilitary wing, and the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party, which is its political faction in the Lebanese Parliament.
While Hezbollah is recognized as a terrorist group by many countries due to its history of global attacks, it has recently evolved into an effective military force through support for Syria’s Assad regime during the Syrian civil war.
However, Hezbollah’s role in Lebanon may change due to public discontent with the country’s power brokers.
A Hyderabad resident raised a complaint about an online job he found on Telegram, where he lost Rs 28 lakh after investing and performing “rate and review” tasks.
He was unable to withdraw his earnings and lost an additional Rs 17 lakh fee trying to access his profits.
The Rs 28 lakh lost by the complainant in a fraud case was traced being transferred to six accounts before being moved to other Indian bank accounts, ultimately ending up in Dubai where it was used to purchase cryptocurrency.
Investigation revealed that 65 bank accounts were opened under 33 fictitious company names in Lucknow, following direction from an individual named Prakash Prajapathi, associated with Chinese citizens Lee Lou Guangzhou, Nan Ye and Kevin Jun.
Prajapati coordinated with the Chinese individuals by providing Indian bank accounts and shared OTPs to operate the accounts remotely from Dubai or China via COOLTECH and AirDroid apps. Victims were reportedly enticed into the scam via Telegram.
According to the reports the Police have detained several individuals across Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Hyderabad suspected of operating bank accounts fraudulently.
Identified suspects in this case include:
- Prakash Mulchandbhai Prajapati,
- Kumar Prajapati,
- Naimuddin Wahiduddin Shaik,
- Gagan Kumar Soni,
- Parveez alias Guddu,
- Shameer Khan,
- Mohammed Munawar,
- Shah Sumair, and Arul Dass.
Police authorities confiscated numerous items, including 17 mobile phones, two laptops, 22 SIM cards, four debit cards, a passport, documents pertaining to 33 companies, and some Chinese currency.
The alleged fraud was reportedly conducted domestically as per instructions from handlers in Dubai, with associated IP addresses also traced back to Dubai.
Hyderabad Commissioner Of Police CV Anand revealed that victims’ money was transferred into mule bank accounts provided by Prakash Prajapati, before being moved to secondary accounts.
It was then converted into USDT cryptocurrency and sent to Chinese masterminds.
Prajapati was compensated with a 2-3% commission, part of which was sent to mule bank account suppliers via hawala operators. Kumar Prajapati of Ahmedabad used their crypto wallet to transfer the money overseas.
Crypto wallet transactions revealed linkages to a wallet associated with terror financing.
The wallet in question transferred cryptocurrency to another wallet, which was then linked to two other wallets. One of these wallets reportedly belongs to Hezbollah’s financing module, according to the report issued by CP Anand.