New Delhi, June 19 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has apprehended an aide of an international hawala syndicate with purported dealings in cryptocurrencies under the charges of money laundering, an official said.

The ED clampdown on illegal foreign remittances came after inputs revealed that remittances to foreign locations were being made on the pretext of bogus transactions.

The suspect identified as Manideep Mago was arrested by the investigative agency on Tuesday and has been remanded to 5-day ED custody.

The ED also carried out searches on the residence of the suspect and also his company Birfa IT services, last week.

The firm sold cryptocurrencies valued at more than Rs 1,858 crore to crypto exchanges, the agency found in its investigation.

It also found that another tranche of Rs 3,500 (foreign remittances) was executed by the company and its related entities.

The ED in its investigation found that the hawala syndicate agent was collecting cash from importers and exporters and then remitting the same to foreign countries using fake invoices.

According to the ED, the well-connected hawala syndicate employed various means for remittances.

It found that foreign outward remittances worth more than Rs 3,500 crore were sent to Canada and Hong Kong by raising bogus invoices for 'online lease of GPU servers for crypto mining', educational softwares, lease of bare metal servers, etc.

The syndicate is also understood to have invested in illegal 'crypto mining' and arbitrage trading.

The ED has also found evidence of involvement of Chartered Accountants and few bank officials.

Bogus invoices were generated and forged invoices in the name of 70,000 random names were entered into the tally database to justify the deposit of cash.

A complaint was made to the Crime Branch, Delhi Police sharing the findings unearthed during search operations conducted by the ED.

Following this, the Crime Branch registered FIR against the syndicate members, pursuant to which an ECIR was recorded by the ED for investigating the case under the provisions of the PMLA.