The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached a luxury yacht, two residential properties, and other high-value assets worth ₹131.45 crore in Spain in connection with a probe into the alleged forex trading fraud linked to OctaFX.
“These assets belong to Pavel Prozorov, the mastermind behind OctaFX,” the agency said in a statement.
According to the ED, the seized assets include a yacht named ‘Cherry’, a minijet boat, a high-end car, and two houses, all owned by Russian national Pavel Prozorov. The yacht, an Italian-made commercial vessel, cruises in the western Mediterranean.
The ED’s action stems from a case filed by the Pune Police against individuals allegedly involved in duping Indian investors through false promises of high returns using the OctaFX trading platform.
The agency revealed that OctaFX was not authorised to operate in India and heavily promoted itself through IPL sponsorships, social media platforms, and celebrities. It used mule accounts in the names of fake e-commerce companies to collect investor money.
“These shell (bogus) firms, with dummy directors and manipulated KYCs, accessed payment gateways posing as legitimate merchants. It was detected that funds were routed through unauthorised payment aggregators and escrow accounts, adding layers to obscure ownership and the transaction purpose,” the ED stated.
To cover its tracks, the platform regularly altered its login URLs and website addresses. The agency alleged that trades were manipulated to cause investor losses while the siphoned money was funnelled into e-wallets and fake entities.
The ED suspects that OctaFX laundered around ₹800 crore in just nine months from its operations in India. These funds were allegedly transferred out of the country under the guise of fake import services to firms linked to Prozorov in Spain, Estonia, Russia, Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE, and the UK.
Earlier, the ED had also attached assets worth ₹296 crore, including 19 properties in Spain, and has so far filed two chargesheets naming OctaFX and 54 other entities as accused.
Reacting to the ED’s claims, OctaFX released a statement:
“As a broker aiming to educate traders and raise their financial awareness, Octa strongly denies any allegations of making false promises of high returns, quick riches, or guaranteed profits. We also don’t engage in any practices that disadvantage traders.”
“We strongly reject any claims that we mask payment gateway identities… Based on the warranties of payment service providers, it is in line with applicable regulations.”
“Like most global brokers, we work with various payment systems and service providers… but we do not control or interfere with their interactions with end-users.”
The investigation continues as Indian authorities seek to trace the full extent of investor losses and international fund transfers in the case.