India's ED Arrests Crypto Founder Over Betting and Cyber-Fraud Laundering via Jubilee Hills Mercantile Co-operative Bank, Nagarbhavi Credit Society

India's Enforcement Directorate (ED), the country's financial crimes agency, has arrested Sagar Dash, founder of Armstrong Exchange Private Limited, in a money laundering investigation into an online gaming and betting fraud run through All Panel Exchange (APX) and related cyber scams.

Dash was arrested on 27 October 2026 by ED's Mumbai Zonal Office-II under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. A Special PMLA Court in Mumbai remanded him to ED custody for three days.

The case

ED's probe is based on three police cases (FIRs) involving online gaming, betting and cyber fraud, in which complainants lost crores of rupees.

ED's July search release sets out how the scheme worked.

Victims were lured through WhatsApp onto the APX betting platform.

Early withdrawals were allowed to build trust; once larger sums were deposited, withdrawals were refused and the operators stopped responding.

The money trail

According to ED, victims' money was first routed through multiple mule accounts at Jubilee Hills Mercantile Co-operative Bank in Hyderabad and then moved into various shell entities.

Large sums from these entities were then transferred into a nodal account of Nagarbhavi Credit Co-operative Society in Bengaluru, operated on behalf of Armstrong Exchange, the company Dash set up.

ED alleges that Dash used the credit society's KYC (know-your-customer) records and forged documents to open a cryptocurrency account.

Hundreds of crores of rupees, equal to tens of millions of dollars, passed through the society's bank account, and a large share was directly linked to proceeds of illegal gaming and betting platforms that lured victims through cyber scams.

In its July 2026 release, ED said an individual had routed about Rs 800 crore (about $85 million) through a co-operative society's bank account using that society's KYC and fabricated documents; that release did not name the individual.

Searches and earlier arrest

ED earlier searched locations in Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Surat and Mehsana in Gujarat, seizing incriminating documents and freezing about $960,000 (Rs 9 crore) in bank accounts.

The agency had previously arrested Ram U. Ramdhani, chief executive of Pune-based Edsom Fintech Private Limited, in the same case.

According to an earlier ED statement carried by Indian media, Ramdhani was arrested on 28 September 2026, and Edsom's accounts received hundreds of crores of rupees through mule accounts and were linked to complaints of gaming, investment, task, digital arrest and crypto frauds.

ED said it remains committed to tracing and dismantling illegal financial networks.

The investigation is continuing.

Dollar figures are converted at the Reserve Bank of India reference rate of Rs 93.81 per US dollar on 11 November 2026.