Viresh Joshi, former chief dealer and fund supervisor at Axis Mutual Fund, has been arrested underneath the anti-money laundering legislation for allegedly defrauding traders of over ₹200 crore by front-running trades, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) stated on August 3.
A particular PMLA court docket has remanded Joshi, who was taken into custody on Saturday, to ED custody until August 8, the company stated.
Entrance-running is an unlawful follow the place merchants use advance information of consumer orders to execute trades for private acquire. This undermines market equity and drawbacks different traders.
The ED started searches on August 1 throughout places together with Delhi, Mumbai, Gurugram, Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Bhuj, and Kolkata.
The company has been probing the case underneath FEMA provisions, following an earlier Revenue Tax Division investigation in 2022.
“The search operations had been a part of an ongoing investigation into the unlawful income made by sure entities/individuals by indulging in front-running commerce actions in scrips traded by Axis Mutual Fund from 2018 to 2021,” the ED said.
The cash laundering case is predicated on a December 2024 FIR filed by Mumbai Police. It alleged that Joshi, as Axis Mutual Fund’s fund supervisor, exploited confidential commerce info to execute advance trades, raking in vital illicit good points.
Based on the ED, Joshi “cheated” traders of Axis Mutual Fund, which manages property price over ₹2 lakh crore.
“The accused had utilised a terminal in Dubai to punch the front-running commerce orders by mule buying and selling accounts obtained from numerous brokers,” the company added.
The probe has additionally revealed that a number of merchants and brokers misused insider info to front-run Axis Mutual Fund’s trades, collectively producing over ₹200 crore in illicit income—a determine that might enhance because the investigation progresses.
The ED stated the fraudulent good points had been routed by a number of shell entities and financial institution accounts linked to the accused and their households.
Belongings price ₹17.4 crore, together with shares, mutual funds, and financial institution balances, had been frozen throughout the searches.
(With inputs from PTI)
