US woman, investing in crypto currency and fraud of millions of dollars… This is how the cunning fraudster Lakshya Vij was caught

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested cryptocurrency handler Lakshya Vij under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002 in connection with a money laundering investigation. He was produced in the PMLA Special Court in Delhi on Tuesday. Where the court has sent him to ED remand for 5 days. The ED has taken this action on the basis of an FIR registered against several accused for cheating an American citizen.

According to the CBI FIR, the accused contacted an American woman and convinced her to transfer her bank investments to a crypto currency account. The accused claimed that her existing account was not safe. The caller gained unauthorized remote access to her computer and created a crypto currency account in the name of the victim using her mobile number and email ID.

After this, the woman was advised to transfer 400,000 US dollars to the said cryptocurrency account. The woman did the same. But later when the victim logged into her account, she found that her account was empty. The victim’s complaint was reported to the Indian authorities, on the basis of which the CBI registered an FIR against some of the accused.

The ED investigation revealed that after transferring the defrauded amount of USD 400,000 from the victim’s bank account to a crypto account, the bitcoins were circulated to multiple wallets and transferred to other individuals through multiple layers to make the money untraceable. After multiple transfers to crypto wallets, the money from the crypto currency account was sent to the bank accounts of dummy entities and thereafter, the money was sent in Indian currency to hundreds of individuals and entities through payment aggregators.

The ED had conducted a search operation in this case on 6 June 2024 and collected several digital evidence. Statements of several persons were recorded under sections 17 and 50 of the PMLA. These were the people whose wallets were used in the transfer of cryptocurrencies and bitcoins.

The evidence collected during the ED investigation revealed that Lakshya Vij was the person who was issuing instructions to transfer bitcoins to various individuals. The instructions were issued mainly through WhatsApp groups, copies of which were recovered by the ED. Lakshya Vij was found guilty of money laundering and was arrested on 22 July 2024 in New Delhi. Now the team of ED’s Delhi Regional Office is investigating further in this case.