JALANDHAR: In a crackdown against an international racket involving gift cards and Virtual Digital Assets, the ED attached immovable properties of an illegal call centre worth Rs 7.31 crore in Ludhiana and Mohali, said an official on Friday.
The call centre was being run by Ankush Bassi, Piyush Malik, Gurmeet Singh Gandhi and others for duping foreigners under the garb of offering customer support service.
The call centre operators used to manipulate foreign customers into buying gift cards and Virtual Digital Assets, said an ED statement.
The gift cards and virtual digital assets were later encashed in India by the accused persons through crypto exchanges and layered through multiple bank accounts of Bassi, Malik, Gandhi and their family members, said the probe agency.
The federal agency’s Jalandhar Zonal Office issued the Provisional Attachment Order against the Ludhiana and Mohali properties under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 on Thursday.
The ED’s investigation revealed that the trio were running a call centre purportedly for providing services without having any affiliations.