India’s ED Raids 20 Locations in Betting Fraud Probe Involving Crypto Conversions

India’s Enforcement Directorate searched 20 premises throughout 5 cities this week. One of many three routes it says moved the cash in another country was crypto.

The searches focused a syndicate the ED says ran two on-line betting and gaming platforms, All Panel Change and MGM91, luring customers to deposit funds earlier than reducing off withdrawals. Investigators allege the proceeds had been layered by means of shell companies and mule financial institution accounts earlier than being transformed into cryptocurrency and moved offshore.

The Enforcement Directorate stated in a press launch dated October 17, 2026, that it carried out the searches on October 13 underneath the Prevention of Cash Laundering Act, 2002, at places in Mumbai, Pune, Mehsana, Surat, and Hyderabad.

What the ED Alleges

In keeping with the ED, the probe stems from two predicate offenses tied to All Panel Change (allpanelexch.com) and MGM91, each on-line betting and gaming platforms that investigators say induced complainants to deposit funds earlier than reducing off withdrawals. Funds collected from victims had been allegedly routed into financial institution accounts managed by Ram U. Ramdhani, a Pune-based particular person who based Edsom Fintech Pvt Ltd.

The ED alleges Edsom developed and operated an in-house fee middleman platform referred to as “iPaisa,” which it used to onboard greater than 200 shell or entrance entities—internally known as “retailers”—on behalf of on-line gaming, betting, and cyber fraud operators and their brokers, described as “Channel Companions/Carry & Ahead Brokers.”

Investigators say funds from victims had been routed by means of a community of mule financial institution accounts, and {that a} important variety of folks working the betting and gaming platforms had been being directed from Dubai. The ED additionally alleges the syndicate was aided by sure cooperative banks whose infrastructure was used to gather and layer the illicit proceeds.

The Crypto Route

The ED recognized three principal strategies it says the syndicate used to maneuver proceeds of crime in another country: remittances disguised as commerce transactions by means of over-invoicing, money withdrawals from mule accounts opened underneath the guise of APMC items, and conversion of funds into cryptocurrency to siphon proceeds exterior India.

The crypto route just isn’t new to this investigation. In an earlier spherical of the identical probe, reported in July 2026, the ED alleged that Edsom Fintech had routed practically ₹800 crore through the use of fabricated KYC paperwork of a credit score cooperative society to open a pockets on a cryptocurrency change platform. Friday’s press launch didn’t specify a revised whole for funds moved by means of crypto on this spherical however named the strategy once more as considered one of three lively laundering channels underneath investigation.

In the course of the October 13 searches, the ED stated it recovered incriminating paperwork and digital gadgets and ordered a number of financial institution accounts linked to the entities and people underneath investigation frozen. Ramdhani, who the ED had earlier arrested following searches in Pune, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, stays in judicial custody.

A Recurring Laundering Channel

This isn’t an remoted use of crypto conversion by Indian fraud syndicates underneath ED scrutiny. In 2022, the company froze cryptocurrency price roughly $1.5 million linked to the gaming app “E-Nuggets,” after tracing funds moved by means of WazirX and Binance wallets. The company later stated it was investigating a minimum of 10 crypto exchanges over alleged hyperlinks to roughly ₹1,000 crore laundered by way of immediate mortgage app scams and issued WazirX a show-cause discover over crypto transactions price ₹2,790.74 crore underneath international change legislation.

In a 2022 written reply to the Lok Sabha, the federal government stated the ED was investigating seven separate circumstances involving cryptocurrency-based cash laundering, with proceeds of crime price ₹135 crore connected on the time.

A ₹2.95 Crore Digital Arrest Case

The identical week, the ED’s Ahmedabad Zonal Workplace filed a separate prosecution criticism in a ₹2.95 crore “digital arrest” scam, through which fraudsters posing as CBI and law enforcement officials coerced two aged victims into transferring ₹1.15 crore and ₹1.80 crore into mule accounts.

Investigators stated the funds had been layered by means of greater than 50 mule accounts, withdrawn in money throughout India and Dubai, moved by means of casual Angadiya courier channels, and partly transformed into cryptocurrency to obscure the path. A notable twist: ₹30 lakh of the proceeds was routed onto a third-party bank card and used to pay insurance coverage premiums, a way the ED stated successfully built-in the stolen funds again into the authentic monetary system.

The ED has provisionally connected ₹38 lakh in property in that case and stated it provides to a collection of digital-arrest investigations through which proceeds had been allegedly transformed into crypto for cross-border motion, together with a ₹7 crore case in Jalandhar involving commissions paid by means of a Binance account and a January 2025 Chennai case the place investigators seized Bitcoin and Tether.

The sample in these circumstances mirrors what investigators now allege within the All Panel Change and MGM91 probe: fraud proceeds collected from victims are layered by means of shell entities and mule accounts, then transformed into crypto as one of many closing steps earlier than funds depart Indian jurisdiction.

Crypto’s attraction for this goal, based mostly on the ED’s public statements throughout these circumstances, seems to lie within the relative pace and lowered visibility it gives in comparison with conventional banking channels for the ultimate offshore leg of a laundering chain.

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