Fake Indian Call Center That Scams Americans Busted: Super Luxury Cars Seized
In a shocking development, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), busted a fake Indian call center which scammed American citizens more than $15 million (over Rs 130 crore). Assets worth several crores were confiscated. These include luxury timepieces, several luxury cars, expensive electronic devices and gadgets, and more. In addition to these, 30 bank accounts linked to (and operated by) the accused have also been frozen.
What Luxury Cars Were Seized?
Various images of the high-value goods seized from the accused have now surfaced online. These include at least nine luxury cars and SUVs. We can see multiple sedan (E-class and S-class) and SUV models from Mercedes, BMW i7 electric sedan, Range Rover Sport, Mini Cooper, and even a Toyota Fortuner Legender in these images. Most of these seem to belong to the latest/outgoing generations.
The S-Class and i7 are the flagship products of the respective brands in the sedan and electric sedan spaces. Priced around 2 Crores, ex-showroom, both enjoy great acceptance among the affluent. The Mercedes SUV seen in these images is an older generation GLS. The 2021 Range Rover Sport had a price of Rs 1.5Cr, ex-showroom back in its day.
The total value of assets seized so far is said to exceed Rs 100 Crores. These, however, include several high-value luxury homes as well.
The Crime: Major Financial Fraud
A group of young individuals- Arjun Gulati, Divyansh Goel, and Abhinav Kalra- from the National Capital Region (NCR), started the ‘illegal’ call center, which over a span of 2-3 years (November 2022 to April 2024.), duped hefty sums from foreign nationals.
The ED recently launched a major probe at seven locations in Gurgaon and Delhi. The search party was carried out under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The company (group) had its call centers running in Noida and Gurugram.
These pitched themselves as technical support providers to unsuspecting US nationals, and allegedly carried out major financial frauds. The team reportedly gained unauthorized access to their bank accounts. The money from these was then transferred to multiple foreign accounts and later routed back to India. As many as 200 bank accounts were involved in the complex transaction web. This, ED says, was to mask the source of these funds.
"The accused persons live in luxury houses allegedly purchased using illegally earned money through a cyber scam. They also acquired numerous assets valued at more than 100 crore from the proceeds of crime," the ED said in a statement. The case, which stems from a previous CBI FIR, is now being closely probed.
Not The First Such Case
Previously, in a separate incident, the Patna zonal office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had attached various movable and immovable properties worth crores from another call center that was accused of committing financial fraud.
100 Crore Scam Bust: ED Seizes Rolls-Royce, Bentley, And G-Wagen
In July, the Enforcement Directorate organised major raids in Rajasthan, as part of a probe on a 100+ Crore scam. Several luxury cars worth crores were seized as part of the same. The confiscated vehicles had Rolls-Royce Phantom, Bentley Mulsanne, Toyota Land Cruiser, and a Mercedes Benz G-Wagen with Brabus kit, among others.
Mukesh Manveer Singh, the chairman of the NSE-listed company Debock Industries Limited, was the accused in this case. The ED also recovered various documents related to various property investments and bank deposits from the company premises and the chairman’s residence, along with digital devices. Reports also say that an unaccounted sum of Rs 78 Lakh was also confiscated.