Abdul Gafoor, a native of Malappuram, Kerala has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate for his alleged involvement in siphoning off funds in the Rs 1,200 crore Morris Coin scam.
Gafoor, who was the director of Stox Global Brokers Private Limited, a shell company based in Malappuram, Kerala, has been remanded in judicial custody by a PMLA court in Kozhikode.
What is the Morris Coin scam?
In 2020, K Nishad, a resident of Malapuram, Kerala launched the Initial Coin Offering of ‘Morris Coin’ a new cryptocurrency token as the main promoter of the cryptocurrency.
Nine hundred people reportedly invested in the ICO, wherein investors bought 10 Morris Coins for Rs 15,000 and had to hold the tokens for 300 days in cryptocurrency wallets provided by the promoters, after which the token was supposed to be listed on a Coimbatore based cryptocurrency exchange, ‘Franc exchange’. The promoters promised that after the tokens are listed, their value would boom several times.
In reality, the tokens were non-existent and never got listed on any exchange. Moreover, the promoters of Morris Coin siphoned all the money and invested it in immovable properties in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, etc.
In October 2020, the Malapuram police launched an investigation into three companies allegedly involved in the scam, Long Reach Global, Long Reach Technologies, and Morris Trading Solutions. All these companies were run by K Nishad.
K Nishad has been booked and arrested by ED for allegedly orchestrating the Morris Coin scam.
Gafoor’s involvement
Abdul Gafoor has been arrested for his alleged involvement in siphoning off the money received by investors for the cryptocurrency, Morris Coin.
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Also Read: ED arrests Kerala man allegedly involved in Morris Coin scam
