Chandigarh: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Chandigarh unit arrested Navab Hassan, a resident of Shamli, Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday in connection with the multi-crore QFX forex trading scam, nearly a week after the mastermind Harinder Pal Singh’s arrest.
On Friday, a special PMLA court in Chandigarh sent Hassan to nine-day ED custody. According to the agency, Hassan played a pivotal role in deceiving investors and mobilizing public deposits to launder proceeds of crime through the QFX scam, which also includes aliases like YFX, BotBro, BotAlpha, Crossalpha, and Minecrypto.
Harinder Pal Singh identified Hassan as the lead agent in West Uttar Pradesh. The ED’s investigation followed multiple FIRs across Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Assam.
The accused promised monthly returns of 5-6% through robot or AI-bot-based forex trading. Using payment aggregators and virtual currencies like USDT, funds were collected, only for investor IDs to be deleted and payouts to halt after a few months. The laundered money was then transferred to the UAE to buy properties in the names of close associates and for luxury expenses.
The probe revealed Hassan held the senior rank of “Blue Diamond Executive” and managed over 10,000 investors. He collected investments initially via payment aggregators and later through USDT, coordinating closely with Dubai-based masterminds Lavish Chaudhary (aka Nawab) and his associates. Hassan admitted no actual forex trading occurred on the platform; investor dashboards showed notional balances while fresh funds were used to pay earlier investors.
Frequently traveling to the UAE to meet Chaudhary, Hassan also participated in Zoom meetings to build investor confidence. A search of his Shamli residence led to the seizure of Rs94.23 lakh proceeds from defrauded investors.
