Under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has attached moveable assets worth Rs.2.77 crore, including cryptocurrency worth Rs.18.05 lakhs and shares worth Rs.4.17 lakhs, in the Power Bank app-related scam.
In June 2021, the ED launched an investigation based on an FIR filed by the Cyber Crime Police Station, CID, Bengaluru, against 13 accused organizations under various provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2008 and the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
The ED investigation revealed that the accused entities registered with payment aggregators purporting to run businesses in the categories of gaming, social networking, and e-commerce, while the public was induced to invest their money through investment schemes run under the guise of Power Bank App/ Sunfactory app by promising them huge rates of interest of up to 18% to be paid on a daily and weekly basis. According to CID information, 13 accused businesses gathered roughly Rs.342 crore from the public during three months from March 2021 to May 2021.
The accused entities did not pay interest or return the principal amount to the public and went incommunicado after collecting large sums of money from the naïve public.
Previously, the ED conducted search operations in this case and arrested Anas Ahmed, the primary accused in the case. A provisional attachment order for the sum of Rs.40.64 Crore was also issued. On 17.03.2022, a prosecution complaint was filed against the accused persons, which is currently being heard in the Special Court, PMLA, Bengaluru. More research is being conducted.
