Mumbai, July 27 (IANS) Three cyber crooks involved in the deposit of Rs 3.81 crore in a single day in a mule account in Mumbai and its further distribution among other fraudsters were arrested by the Economic Offences Branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), an official said on Sunday.

The three were identified as mule account holder Sudhir Bhaskar Palande, middleman Yash Thakur and cyber operator-cum-agent Shaurya Sunilkumar Singh, the official said.

A mule account is a bank account used by criminals to transfer or launder illicit funds, often without the account holder’s knowledge.

The arrests were made as part of a CBI drive against organised cyber fraudsters, said an official statement, adding that the three accused were produced in a Special CBI Court which sent them to judicial custody.

The CBI said that that Rs 3.81 crore were received from various cyber victims in the said mule account on July 2.

During the investigation, the probe agency identified the middlemen involved in opening of mule account in Mumbai, facilitating arrangements of stay of account holder at Nagpur and transferring of funds in other mule accounts through other agents of Nagpur.

After receiving credits in the account, the money was further transferred to more than hundred mule accounts opened across India in the first layer. “The money of cyber fraud was further transferred/layered to thousands of accounts before reaching actual cyber fraudsters,” said the statement.

Investigation by CBI Mumbai’s EOB revealed that agents in Nagpur and mule account holder Palande received commission in crypto currency which was further distributed among the co-conspirators.

During the investigation, the CBI unearthed the entire conspiracy of opening of the mule account by bankers and the middlemen without proper KYC norms or Customer Due Diligence or Initial Risk Assessment.

The guidelines issued vide the RBI Master circular and certain internal guidelines issued by the bank were also violated, said the probe agency.

During searches, the CBI seized several incriminating documents and digital evidence, mobile phones, iPad, Bank account opening documents, transaction details and KYC documents.

–IANS

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