Table of Contents
This Post Is Recently Updated on Oct 30, 2023 @ 13:42 pm by TBB Desk
1. The Peep Into The Rotten Rat…
Among the lakhs of transactions conducted daily, one peculiar transaction caught the attention of a digital payments company, which turned out to be the key to uncovering a web of fraudulent transactions amounting to over Rs 16,180 crore. This revelation, surpassing the notorious Punjab National Bank scam of January 2018 involving Nirav Modi, left the Thane Police bewildered until its recent disclosure.
2. Official Unveiling
The enormity of the scam was officially revealed on 9 October by Thane’s Shrinagar Police Station, following the lodging of an FIR initiated by a complaint from Safexpay Technology Pvt. Ltd, Thane.
3. Hacking into Digital Fortresses
Investigators discovered that unknown entities allegedly hacked Safexpay’s payout platform, with the probe revealing that at least Rs 16,180 crore had been siphoned off, including some funds transferred overseas.
4. Initial Whiff of Suspicion
Safexpay’s Thane-based founder-CEO, Ravi Gupta, mentioned that the scam came to light around April when four merchants from Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh reported “suspicious” discrepancies between their bank balances and system balances.
5. Diligent Internal Probing
An exhaustive internal investigation by Safexpay’s financial operations teams revealed that among the four, one merchant’s login was compromised, albeit the dubious transaction was not conducted by them.
6. Swift Action to Halting Further Losses
Safexpay, overseeing over 100,000 transactions daily, promptly alerted the beneficiaries and the concerned banks. They kickstarted the process to halt further illegal fund transfers during the critical ‘golden period’, typically within 24 hours of detecting a discrepancy.
7. Ripple of Financial Loss
This single transaction led to a loss of Rs 25 crore. Stunned by the revelations, Safexpay promptly lodged a complaint with Thane Police’s Cyber Crime Investigation Cell and the National Cyber Crime portal on 20 April, as disclosed by Gupta. This was followed by a detailed FIR at Shrinagar Police Station on 16 June 2023, inclusive of detailed evidence and other material.
8. Remedial Measures Yielding Results
During the ‘golden period’, remedial measures undertaken by Safexpay led to the salvaging of around Rs 7 crore from the detected fraud amount of Rs 25 crore from its payout platform, as claimed by Gupta.
9. Comprehensive System Analysis
Safexpay engaged cyber experts, forensic auditors among others to conduct an in-depth system analysis to understand how the hackers infiltrated the system, siphoned off the money, and analyzed the beneficiary accounts. Detailed reports were subsequently handed over to Thane Police.
10. Unraveling the Larger Scheme
This investigation was merely scratching the surface as the police unearthed deceptive transactions amounting to at least Rs 16,180 crore, orchestrated by distinct entities utilizing various fake bank accounts, entirely unrelated to Safexpay.
11. Tracing the Financial Trails
The amount of Rs 25 crore was traced to the HDFC Bank account of a Thane-based company, Riyal Enterprises, which operates five branches in Thane and Navi Mumbai. Further investigations into Riyal Enterprises revealed around 260 accounts in different names across various banks were allegedly employed for executing the financial frauds.
12. Massive Misappropriation Unveiled
A meticulous examination of the bank statements of these 260 accounts pointed to an estimated misappropriation of a colossal Rs 16,180 crore, a portion of which had been transferred to foreign accounts, as stated by Thane Police.
13. Arrests and Continued Investigations
So far, Thane Police have apprehended two individuals, Amol Andhale alias Aman and Sameer alias Kedar Dinghe, with ongoing efforts to locate others including Sanjay Singh and Jitendra Pandey, who is reportedly the kingpin of this mega fraud boasting over a decade of banking experience.
14. Suspected Larger Network
The police suspect a larger network of individuals involved in this massive racket of opening bank accounts with fake documents, and establishing entities with fraudulent papers to dupe the banks and the government.
15. Safexpay Tightening Security Measures
In the wake of the fraud, Safexpay has ramped up its security systems with enhanced monitoring by different teams, increasing alerts to four per hour from one per hour earlier for any suspicious transactions on the platform, heightened vigil at system levels, real-time monitoring, and a forensic probe, as shared by an official.
