New Delhi, Oct 17 (UNI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today reported that it conducted search operations at five locations across Hyderabad targetingfive Full Fledged Money Changers’ (FFMCs) for violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
The FFMCs are Prism Forex Private Limited, Garuda Forex Services Private Limited, Sree Vimal Nath Forex Private Limited, Victory Forex & Travel Services Private Limited and Digital Forex Private Limited.
The operations revealed that the FFMCs were operating illegally without a valid licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The action follows an earlier inspection by the RBI’s Hyderabad office, which uncovered several irregularities at these firms.
These included KYC documents without corresponding travel tickets, false or fictitious traveller names, fake and forged flight tickets, manipulation of flight dates and numbers, mismatched customer signatures, and multiple copies of the same travel ticket with forged details. Sales were predominantly shown for travel to common, visa-free destinations like Indonesia, Maldives, Thailand, and Sri Lanka.
The RBI’s inspection led to the FFMCs surrendering their licences in June-July 2025.
The ED’s investigation further revealed that even after surrendering their RBI licences, some of the FFMCs, namely Prism Forex Private Limited, Victory Forex & Travel Services Private Limited, and Digital Forex Private Limited, continued their illegal money-changing businesses, displaying fake and forged RBI licenses on their premises.
The FEMA searches resulted in the recovery of incriminating documents, mobile phones, and laptops containing records of illegal foreign currency dealings. Authorities also seized unaccounted Indian currency amounting to Rs 11.99 lakh and foreign currency of various denominations equivalent to Rs 26.77 lakh.
Further investigation into the matter is on.
