BENGALURU: Karnataka's cybercrime sleuths have busted a Rs 290-crore money laundering (hawala) scam, operated in the name of 'Powerbank' investment and arrested nine persons, including two Chinese and two Tibetans, an official of the state's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said on Sunday.

According to the  CID cybercrime's Superintendent of Police M.D. Sharath, it is said that the 9 accused, including 2 Chinese, 2 Tibetans and 5 directors of shell companies involved in the hawala scam were arrested under section 420 of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) and section 66 of the IT Act for cheating several investors.

During the investigation, the cybercrime police found that a Kerala-based businessman, Anas Ahmed, was the mastermind behind the scam, operating with Chinese hawala operators in money laundering. "Ahmed, who is still at large, married a Chinese woman when he was in China for studies and established links with Chinese hawala operators. He opened shell companies to route the laundered money," said Sharath in a statement.

The case was registered on a complaint by Razor Pay Software Ltd, a payment solutions firm in this tech city, which alleged that the accused had availed its solutions by claiming that they were in gaming, social and e-commerce business.

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