*ED questions 2 TV actors on payment to them for promoting app*

 The ED might present the actors as witnesses in the case but it is yet to take a decision on it as the investigation was underway. (File Photo)

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday recorded statements of television actors Krystle D'Souza and Karan Wahi as part of an inquiry into a money laundering case. The agency was probing this case in connection with another one related to illegal online forex trading through international brokers, namely the OctaFx trading app and website octafx.com.

The two actors reached the ED's Ballard Estate office on Wednesday morning and were allowed to leave after their inquiry concluded. They were questioned and their statement were recorded to find out details of payments made to them for promoting the OctaFX App. They may be called again if the need arises, an ED source said.

Apart from D'Souza and Wahi, actor Nia Sharma too was summoned again as she failed to appear before the agency and record her statement.

The ED might present the actors as witnesses in the case but it is yet to take a decision on it as the investigation was underway.

Earlier in April, the central agency had conducted search operations at various locations in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi. During the searches, the ED had frozen Rs 2.7 crore kept in bank accounts and seized various incriminating documents and digital devices.

ED's money laundering investigation into the scam is based on an FIR registered at Pune's Shivaji Nagar police station. The FIR had been lodged against several people for their alleged involvement in luring people with high returns and duping them under the pretext of forex trading through the OctaFx trading platform.

The OctaFx online trading app and website operate in the country in association with India-based entity M/s OctaFx India Private Limited.

According to the ED, the app and its website have not been authorised by the Reserve Bank of India to deal in forex trading. The trading platform is widely promoted on social networking sites and follows referral-based incentive models to acquire users for their platforms.

The ED said that during investigations, it was revealed that multiple accounts of different Indian banks were being shown to investors/users on the app and website to collect funds under the guise of facilitating forex trading. The app and the website manipulated trade activities and information shown on its platform, ultimately resulting in net losses to traders. The funds accumulated after defrauding these investors/users was transferred transferred to multiple e-wallet accounts or bank accounts of dummy entities, read a statement issued by the ED.

Through these transactions, M/s OctaFx lndia Pvt Ltd, M/s OctaFx, and their entities cheated investors under the guise of forex trading, thereby earning a profit of more than Rs 500 crore from the Indian region, the ED stated. A portion of these funds was allegedly layered through a web of complex transactions with the help of shell entities and remitted abroad to its related entities under the garb of bogus freight services, import of services, etc.

The anti-money laundering agency so far has attached assets to the tune of Rs 35 crore in the form of cryptocurrencies, bank balances, gold coins etc.

It was also revealed that the entire process - of reflecting account numbers of dummy entities, managing the funds collected in these accounts and diverting the same - were managed and operated by the owner of OctaFx group entities based in Spain, Russia, Georgia and Dubai, the ED said.

M/s. OctaFx also hired several Indian individuals working in Spain and Russia to operate the OctaFx trading platform and induce Indian citizens to invest in forex trading through OctaFx, the ED said.