The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Sunday arrested two alleged cyber-fraudsters in Mumbai, who are suspected to be masterminds in an elaborate “interconnected network of commodity, trading, travel and forex entities” that have together cheated more than 330 victims and are accused in 163 first information reports (FIRs) registered across the country involving fraudulent banking transactions exceeding ₹27,850 crore.
The accused, identified as Fahim Sayed and Naim Sayyed, were arrested on Sunday, by the ED’s Panaji zonal office in connection with a case where a woman victim from Goa alleged that she was coerced by “digital arrest” into transferring ₹2,60 crore between May 21, 2025, and June 06, 2026, into accounts falsely described to her as “secret supervision accounts”.
“The victim’s funds were routed within hours through a first layer of dormant and newly-opened accounts and fragmented across more than four hundred beneficiary accounts. The trail led to an interconnected network of commodity, trading, travel and forex entities which have together undertaken banking transactions exceeding Rs. 27,850 crore and deposited approximately Rs. 2,904 crore in cash, including Rs. 584.70 crore through 61,448 Bulk Note Acceptance Machine transactions at multiple locations,” ED said in a statement.
“Investigation has established that the accounts of these entities are the subject of 330 victim complaints and 163 First Information Reports across 20 States and Union Territories, involving an aggregate reported loss of Rs. 417.49 crore. In 101 of those complaints, the money of a single victim was routed into two or more entities of the same network in the course of one and the same fraud,” ED also said.
The ED said that searches were conducted under section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act at 20 premises in Mumbai and Goa on July 17 and at further premises on August 21, which resulted in a seizure of cash to the tune of ₹3.25 crore along with digital devices, records and statutory registers which have been attached as evidence in the probe.
