Enforcement Directorate officials, on Thursday, took the kingpin of the mobile app investment scam, Anas Ahmed, into six days custody after booking him under sections of the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMLA).
Anas Ahmed, a Kerala-based businessman, has been accused in a money-laundering case in connection with a fraud committed through Powerbank and other such fraudulent mobile applications.
In June 2021, the cybercrime police of CID arrested 11 persons, including Anas Ahmed, allegedly involved in the collection of hundreds of crores of rupees from people through an app called ‘Powerbank’. Sources said that it has been found that the accused were conducting transactions through the hawala route.
The ED officials had initiated money laundering investigation into the operations of accused entities that induced the public to invest certain amount through Powerbank and other such fraudulent apps by assuring to remit interest on daily or weekly basis on the investments made.
The accused entities closed their purported business after collecting huge sums of money from gullible public and had gone incommunicado. They neither paid interest nor returned the principal amount to the public and withheld the investment made by public which had resulted in the commission of cheating offences. Anas Ahmed is a partner in two accused firms, namely H&S Ventures Inc and Clifford Ventures., the ED said.
These two partnership firms have been responsible for collection of…
