CBI chargesheets 17, including 4 Chinese nationals in transnational cyber fraud of over Rs 1,000 crore

STC NEWS MONITORING DESK
NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 14 (STC): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a chargesheet against 17 people, including four Chinese nationals, and 58 companies for their alleged roles in a transnational cyber fraud network that siphoned off over Rs 1,000 crore through a sprawling web of shell entities and digital scams, reports quoting officials said today.
The scam was busted
in October, and investigators unravelled a single, tightly coordinated syndicate that relied on an elaborate digital and financial infrastructure to run a range of frauds. According to the reports, these included misleading loan applications, fake investment schemes, Ponzi and multi-level marketing models, bogus part-time job offers and fraudulent online gaming platforms.
The CBI’s final report states that the group layered the flow of illicit funds through 111 shell companies, routing about Rs 1,000 crore via mule accounts. One account received more than Rs 152 crore in a short span.
About the shell companies, the CBI said, “These shell entities were used to open bank accounts and merchant accounts with various payment gateways, enabling rapid layering and diversion of proceeds of crime.”
Investigators traced the origins of the scam to 2020, when the country was grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. The shell companies were allegedly incorporated at the direction of four Chinese handlers — Zou Yi, Huan Liu, Weijian Liu and Guanhua Wang, said the report.
Their Indian associates, as per the statement of the agency, procured identity documents from unsuspecting individuals, which were then used to establish the network of shell companies and mule accounts to launder proceeds from the scams and obscure the money trail.
The investigation exposed communication links and operational control that, the agency said, nailed the role of Chinese masterminds running the fraud network from abroad.
“Significantly, a UPI ID linked to the bank accounts of two Indian accused was found to be active in a foreign location as late as August 2025, conclusively establishing continued foreign control and real-time operational oversight of the fraud infrastructure from outside India,” the CBI statement said.
The probe found that “each stage of the operation — from luring victims to collection and movement of funds — was deliberately structured to conceal the identities of the actual controllers and evade detection by law enforcement agencies.”
Notably, the chargesheet names 17 individuals, including the four Chinese nationals, and 58 companies.

(Straight Talk Communications I Inputs from agencies)