In the Power Bank App fraud case, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has attached the movable and immovable property worth Rs. 59.44 crore of Vaibhav Dipak Shah, M/s. Sagar Diamonds Pvt. Ltd., M/s. RHC Global Exports Pvt. Ltd., and their associates.
Various FIRs filed by the Uttrakhand Police, Special Cell Delhi Police, and Karnataka State Police under various sections of the IPC and the Information Technology Act served as the foundation for the ED’s probe.
An investigation by the ED showed that a small group of Chinese nationals had used CA/CS (Vaibhav Dipak Shah and Associates, M/s. Sagar Diamonds Pvt. Ltd; M/s. RHC Global Exports Pvt. Ltd.) and other Indian professionals to incorporate a number of shell firms in India as part of a broader plot and with the express purpose of defrauding the Indian population. Additionally, a number of software programs (Apps), including Power Bank App, Tesla Power Bank App, Ezplan, etc., were advertised on online stores like Google Play Store and others to entice the trusting Indian populace into investing in schemes that promised inflated returns.
Searches already undertaken by the ED, in this case, revealed that the people and businesses involved had been siphoning off significant amounts of money to foreign countries while posing as fraudulent imports. Currency and valuables worth Rs. 10.34 crore were found during the search, and bank accounts with a value of Rs. 14.81 crore were frozen. On February 6, 2022, a provisional attachment order involving a value of Rs. 4.92 crore was also issued in the case. A prosecution complaint was filed against the three suspects (Vaibhav Dipak Shah and Associates, M/s. Sagar Diamonds Pvt. Ltd; M/s. RHC Global Exports Pvt. Ltd.) in the case on April 25, 2023, and they are currently facing trial before the Special Court, PMLA, New Delhi. Further research is now being conducted.
