ED Questions TV Actors Over Illegal Forex Trading Promotion

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned television actors Karan Wahi and Krystle D'Souza on Wednesday for promoting the forex trading platform OctaFX and accepting payments for their endorsements, according to sources familiar with the matter. Their statements were officially recorded by the authorities.

In April, the ED's Mumbai Zonal Office conducted searches under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Delhi. These searches were part of an ongoing investigation into unlawful online forex trading via overseas brokers, with a particular focus on the OctaFX Trading App and the website www.octafx.com.

During the raids, police froze ₹2.7 crore in bank money and confiscated several papers and digital gadgets. These procedures were conducted in response to a complaint filed by the Shivaji Nagar Police Station in Pune. The FIR accused numerous persons of luring people in with false promises of big profits and cheating them under the guise of forex trading via OctaFX.

According to investigations, OctaFX operates in India via M/s OctaFX India Pvt Ltd. Notably, neither the app nor the website are sanctioned by the Reserve Bank of India. The investigation revealed that these firms made roughly ₹500 crore in earnings from their activities in India.