ED attaches Rs 38 crore worth of flats in Dubai belonging to VIPS group owner Vinod Khute | India News – Times of India

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued an attachment order for multiple flats in Dubai worth Rs 38 crore belonging to Vinod Khute, the owner of VIPS Group of Companies and Global Affiliate Business company based in Pune.
This action is a result of an ongoing investigation into a money laundering case involving Khute. After issuing the attachment order, the ED will sent it to the government authorise in Dubai, requesting them for the require action.
Initially, the ED was looking into a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violation case against Khute. Last year, the ED itself filed a cheating-forgery First Information Report (FIR) against Khute and his company at the Bharti Vidyapeeth police station in Pune. This FIR was based on the evidence collected during the FEMA investigation. Subsequently, the ED registered a money laundering case against the accused based on the Pune FIR.
The investigation suggests that Khute and other accused individuals lured people into a Ponzi scheme and forex trading by promising high returns. They allegedly collected more than Rs 100 crore in the bank accounts of bogus firms and entities. These funds were then transferred to Dubai through hawala operators using cryptocurrencies like USDT to avoid regulatory scrutiny and facilitate money laundering.

The ED suspects that Khute collected over Rs 400 crore in unaccounted money from Indian investors and provided them with equivalent amounts in US dollars for trading in the Dubai exchange. According to the ED, Khute would collect funds from investors in shell companies and facilitate forex trading and commodity trading activities through Kana Capital Limited.
The ED found that Vinod Khute, who is currently residing in Dubai, is the mastermind behind various illegal financial activities, including crypto exchange, wallet services, and forex trading through the Dubai-based firm Kana Capital Limited. Khute allegedly established multiple companies to carry out illicit financial activities and used shell companies and dummy accounts to conceal the nature of the transactions. Previously, the ED conducted searches at various locations in Pune, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai related to Vinod Khute and froze Rs. 23 crore in the form of bank balances and cash under the provisions of FEMA.