Hyderabad, Nov 4 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate has arrested four key accused in connection with an ongoing money laundering investigation into a fake call centre scam targeting US nationals.
ED, Hyderabad Zonal Office arrested Harshil Nayanbhai Raval, Jaswant Singh, Chetan Munjal, and Pranav Pithadia under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 and produced them before the Special Court in Nampally, which remanded them to judicial custody.
The Central agency said in a release on Wednesday that it had arrested Vikas Nimar, Tarachand Nimar and Mohd. Irfan Ansari in July-August in the same case. With the latest arrests, the total number of persons arrested by the ED in the case has gone up to seven.
On September 15, the ED conducted searches in Patiala, Pune and Chandigarh, wherein three live call centres were detected with around 220 persons working at the time of searches. Digital devices along with cash and records were seized during the searches. Forensic examination has so far been completed on 79 digital devices, comprising 65 mobile phones, 13 laptops and computers and one data storage disk, which were found to hold the chats, ledgers, calling data, victim records and crypto wallets of the syndicate.
The ED investigation was initiated into offences of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy committed against residents of the US through call centres, operated from India, involving impersonation of government officials and use of forged government documents and identity cards.
According to the agency, the investigation has revealed that the syndicate operated organised calling floors (fake call centres) in which the staff worked as dialers, bankers and closers. US nationals were contacted on the pretext of fraudulent purchases or charges on their accounts and were thereafter intimidated by callers impersonating officials of US agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission and Department of the Treasury, using forged identity cards, badges, official letters and court documents.
Under the threat of legal action, the victims were induced to hand over cash and gold to pick-up persons, send cash in parcels through courier services, transfer funds to US bank accounts of money mule channels and were also routed through accounts in Dubai and other countries, the ED said.
Explaining how the call centre cheated US nationals, the ED said lists of about 20 lakh US telephone numbers, with names, addresses and age, many of elderly persons, were loaded into auto diallers hosted on servers in Germany and Finland. Victims received fake alerts of purchases, refunds or a virus on their computer, or a call from a US number, and were made to call a toll-free helpline answered from India.
According to ED, callers posed as officers of the DEA, Department of Justice, FTC and US Treasury, showing forged ID cards, badges, seizure notices and court orders, and said the victim’s accounts were linked to drugs or money laundering. Victims were threatened with arrest and freezing of all savings. They were told to keep the matter secret and to ‘safeguard’ their money with the ‘government’.
Victims bought gold bars, handed over cash to pick up persons, sent cash hidden in parcels by courier, wired money to mule accounts and Dubai companies, deposited cash at Bitcoin ATMs or bought gift cards.
Dollars were settled at a daily rupee rate and moved to India through hawala and angadia tokens, crypto (USDT) and accounts in Dubai and Hong Kong, and invested in properties, gold, vehicles and businesses.
‘Dialers’ made the first contact, ‘bankers’ checked the victim’s savings, and ‘closers’ posing as US officers took the money.
ED identified 927 approved collections of about US$ 27.39 million (about Rs. 261 crore) between July 2025 and September 2026.
The operation spanned several countries. Calls were placed from India to residents of the United States using lead lists of 20 lakh persons, US telephone numbers and auto-dialler servers hosted in Germany and Finland.
The investigation has revealed that proceeds were collected in the US and routed through accounts of companies in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai) and Hong Kong, and through crypto-assets, before reaching India through hawala and angadia channels.
A total of 549 victims in the US have been named so far. Many of them were born in the 1940s. As many as 6,463 US numbers were called or messaged.
Investigation revealed that Pranav Pithadia was the owner and manager of the Patiala calling floors.
The investigation is continuing to identify further proceeds of crime, trace the money trail and ascertain the involvement of other persons/entities in the offence of money laundering.
–IANS
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