IT Dept. Cracks Down on Rs. 300 Crypto Hawala Racket in Kerala; Digital Wallets Used to Move Illicit Funds

As a part of a larger initiative to expose all illegal cryptocurrency transactions/scams in the nation, the Income Tax Department has recently unearthed a major crypto hawala racket worth Rs. 300, operating in Kerala.

Officials said that the network pretended to be a flower export company but was actually using cryptocurrency to secretly send money outside the regular banking system.

In this context, the department conducted search operations across multiple locations in the districts of Malappuram and Kozhikode, unveiling digital wallets and documents linking the suspects to international transactions.

Sources say the beginning investigation revealed the export firm was run by two key individuals from Malappuram, who claimed to ship flowers to Indonesia. But investigators discovered that the company was mainly being used to secretly move money using cryptocurrency, like a digital version of hawala.

Transactions to the exports were not made via banking channels, but rather through cryptocurrency wallets. The accused reportedly created multiple digital wallets in the names of students and local residents in order to hide movements of profit amounts.

One key accused is thought to be running things from Saudi Arabia, while his partner handled the work in Malappuram and Kozhikode.

An income tax official said, “The exact quantum of illicit funds will be determined after the forensic audit of the digital wallets.” Reports say the racket conducted transactions for a total of Rs. 330 crore through various cryptocurrencies. This was in contravention of the provisions of foreign exchange regulations. The department is likely to hand over the case to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) for further inspection.