Four Chinese among 17 chargesheeted in Rs 1,000 crore cyber fraud case

The CBI has filed a chargesheet against 17 people including four Chinese nationals and 58 companies for their alleged roles in a transnational cyber fraud network that siphoned off over Rs 1000 crore through a sprawling web of shell entities and digital scams officials said on SundayAfter busting the racket in October investigators unravelled a single tightly coordinated syndicate that relied on an elaborate digital and financial infrastructure to run a range of fraudsThese included misleading loan applications fake investment schemes Ponzi and multilevel marketing models bogus parttime job offers and fraudulent online gaming platformsAccording to the probe agencys final report the group layered the flow of illicit funds through 111 shell companies routing about Rs 1000 crore via mule accountsOne account received more than Rs 152 crore in a short spanThe shell companies the CBI said were incorporated using dummy directors forged or misleading documents fake addresses and false statements of business objectivesThese shell entities were used to open bank accounts and merchant accounts with various payment gateways enabling rapid layering and diversion of proceeds of crime a CBI spokesperson said in a statementInvestigators traced the origins of the scam to 2020 when the country was grappling with the COVID19 pandemicThe shell companies were allegedly incorporated at the direction of four Chinese handlers Zou Yi Huan Liu Weijian Liu and Guanhua WangTheir Indian associates procured identity documents from unsuspecting individuals which were then used to establish the network of shell companies and mule accounts to launder proceeds from the scams and obscure the money trailThe investigation exposed communication links and operational control that the agency said nailed the role of Chinese masterminds running the fraud network from abroadSignificantly a UPI ID linked to the bank accounts of two Indian accused was found to be active in a foreign location as late as August 2025 conclusively establishing continued foreign control and realtime operational oversight of the fraud infrastructure from outside India the CBI statement saidThe probe found that the racketeers employed a highly layered technologydriven modus operandi using Google advertisements bulk SMS campaigns SIMboxbased messaging systems cloud infrastructure fintech platforms and multiple mule bank accountsEach stage of the operation from luring victims to collection and movement of funds was deliberately structured to conceal the identities of the actual controllers and evade detection by law enforcement agencies the spokesperson saidThe chargesheet names 17 individuals including the four Chinese nationals and 58 companiesThe investigation was launched on the inputs from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre I4C under the Ministry of Home Affairs which flagged largescale cheating of citizens through online investment and employment schemes resulting in the arrest of three individuals in OctoberThough initially appearing as isolated complaints detailed analysis by CBI revealed striking similarities in applications used fundflow patterns payment gateways and digital footprints pointing towards a common organised conspiracy the agency saidFollowing the October arrests the CBI conducted searches at 27 locations across Karnataka Tamil Nadu Kerala Andhra Pradesh Jharkhand and Haryana seizing digital devices documents and financial records that were later subjected to detailed forensic examinationThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever