For decades, Dawood Ibrahim, India’s most wanted fugitive and the mastermind behind the 1993 Mumbai bombings, has remained a ghost in the eyes of Indian authorities. Operating from Pakistan, Dubai and London, he was long thought to have lain low, maintaining a careful distance from India. But a deep investigation by New Delhi Post reveals that the don has strategically re-entered India by reasserting his business interests in gambling, betting and corporate sectors through a sophisticated web of global syndicates, offshore companies and loyal henchmen.
Dawood Ibrahim is back in India. Not with guns and bombs, but through a sprawling, corporate-style underworld empire —enough to threaten India’s national security. New Delhi Post’s investigation reveals that India’s most wanted fugitive has revived his business interests on home soil, running a vast underground empire that thrives on regulatory loopholes, global linkages and a network of loyal operatives embedded within corporate structures — all while remaining safely cloaked behind layers of offshore jurisdictions. The development demonstrates that the monster who once terrorised India is very much alive and operational, in plain sight yet beyond the reach of the law.
New Delhi Post’s global investigation traces a sprawling criminal network of the don, spanning Europe, America, Africa, Asia and Australia, with an operational hub in Curaçao, an island in the Netherlands. According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Curaçao has earned notoriety as a tax haven and money-laundering hotspot, implicated in a range of international criminal activities. Thousands of global operators in betting, gambling and fantasy gaming continue to exploit its licensing loopholes. Dawood has masterfully exploited this system, linking offshore operations with India’s online gaming market to re-establish a foothold in the country. From this very jurisdiction, Dawood’s henchmen, smugglers and terror financiers are running an expansive betting and casino network across India.
Dawood’s entry into India’s booming online betting market came through an unexpected door, around the second wave of Covid-19. The world’s largest online betting company, Betfair, operated by Flutter Entertainment under the leadership of Chairman John A. Bryant and CEO Peter Jackson, required local operators in India who had strong connections to cricket and Bollywood — the two most lucrative entertainment ecosystems in the country. Dawood was also looking for a business that could be operated from Pakistan and Dubai. The don’s prior experience in betting, gambling and casino businesses made him an ideal partner for Betfair. An unlikely yet potent marriage of convenience took place between Europe and America’s online gaming mafia and Asia’s don, Dawood Ibrahim.
In effect, Dawood and Betfair’s Bryant and Jackson became the invisible triumvirate, forming a cross-continental empire that now dominates India’s online betting and gambling space. Out of this alliance emerged Lotus 365, which aggressively challenged other international betting brands.
New Delhi Post first stumbled upon Lotus 365 while pursuing a routine investigation into India’s fast-growing online betting networks. What began as a small lead gradually evolved into a months-long undercover probe that exposed an intricate web of underworld financing, offshore companies and cross-border money laundering.
The biggest challenge for the New Delhi Post team was to trace the branches and roots of Lotus 365’s operations in India. Our reporters identified the company’s network of betting, casino and gambling ventures, and eventually the henchmen linked to the D-Company who managed them. Conversations with five underworld operatives, backed by verified banking details, revealed the contours of a powerful syndicate stretching from Dubai and Pakistan to India. All these findings date back to 2022, a period when neither the police nor the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was aware of this new model of betting and match-fixing orchestrated by the underworld.
To expose the inner workings of Lotus 365, New Delhi Post began by examining its ownership structure and modus operandi. The team found direct involvement by Dawood’s operators and henchmen. Over a month-long operation, reporters travelled over 6,000 kilometres across Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru, examining a dozen companies and uncovering a sophisticated criminal operation. Evidence gathered by the team revealed that funds from Lotus 365 were being channelled into terror financing, while user data was sold in international markets.
The probe soon turned dangerous. New Delhi Post reporters received multiple threat calls from underworld numbers, prompting the outlet to alert the Union Home Ministry via public tweets the same year.
The next step for New Delhi Post was to trace the foreign-based companies operating behind these platforms. The only way to do this was by tracking the payment methods used by Indian consumers on betting, gaming and casino apps. Through this approach, New Delhi Post uncovered a key link: the Lotus 365 betting app led the team to a firm named Nativ Organic Enterprises, whose account number 50200072919089 was registered at HDFC Bank’s Mazgaon branch in Mumbai. At this very branch, the undercover reporters met bank manager Sohaib Khan, from whom they obtained critical information about the Dawood gang’s financial nexus.
A crucial thread then emerged from Pune, identified as the epicentre of this criminal operation. The IDFC First Bank, Wakad branch, was found to hold account number 10100501522 in the name of Saal Siddheshwar. Similar accounts surfaced elsewhere: Bhavani Traders (No. 5222222223) at IDFC First Bank, Mondeal Square, Ahmedabad, and Rutwa Enterprises (No. 0794073000000220) at South Indian Bank, Vandematram Arcade, Gota, Ahmedabad. All these accounts were found to be interconnected, forming a financial chain that lies at the core of Lotus 365’s criminal enterprise. Together, they expose the underworld’s deep financial footprint across India.
This transactional trail laid bare not only the modus operandi of these international betting, gambling and casino operations, but also the identities of the true masterminds controlling them. In 2024, following the groundwork laid by New Delhi Post’s investigation, Maharashtra Police arrested Dawood’s associate Salim, marking the first major breakthrough in the case.
New Delhi Post also examined Lotus 365’s claimed legal licence, which was registered under Aura Services N.V., Curaçao, Netherlands. In a startling email response to the publication, Aura Services N.V. stated that it had no connection with Lotus 365 and that the latter was illegally misusing the company’s name. Further investigation revealed that several other betting firms linked to Lotus 365 were also operating under licences supposedly issued by Aura Services N.V., Curaçao.
Even more curiously, the post box and licence numbers of these companies — including Flutter Entertainment PLC, Super Group (SGTC) Limited, Aura Services N.V., Sky Infotech N.V. and BetBarter Nexus — were found to trace back to the same network, confirming the existence of an interconnected global betting syndicate.
The key question is: what ties do international betting companies have with Dawood Ibrahim?
The trail began with BetBarter, a popular online betting brand operating across India. According to official records, the “BetBarter” trademark was registered on 18 July 2020 by one Siddharth Mathur, acting as an agent for Sky Infotech N.V., an offshore company based in Curaçao. The trademark was filed under application number 4574399 and registration number 2619748, covering activities related to betting, gambling, clubs and lotteries.
This registration is more than a formality; it establishes a tangible Indian link to an offshore operator. Mathur’s association with Sky Infotech N.V. overlapped with networks connected to Lotus 365. This overlap — between Mathur, Sky Infotech N.V. and Lotus 365 — forms a crucial bridge between international betting operations and Dawood Ibrahim, who is believed to launder money through such channels.
The pattern repeats itself with another entity, Unicon Bet, which operates from Dange Chowk, Pune. Unicon Bet identifies Aura Services N.V. as its operator — the same offshore company that runs Lotus 365. Official records from Curaçao confirm Aura Services N.V.’s registration under No. 156283 (2021), with its office located at Abraham De Veerstraat 9, Curaçao, P.O. Box 3421, and sub-licence number 2021.GLH-OCCHKTW0701162021.
These details, though seemingly bureaucratic, reveal a deeper web. Both BetBarter and Unicon Bet — brands that appear independent — are actually tied to the same offshore structures as Lotus 365. Through entities like Sky Infotech N.V. and Aura Services N.V., Dawood’s network channels illicit betting revenue and laundered funds into the Indian market.
Taken together, the evidence suggests a carefully constructed architecture of offshore companies, Indian agents and digital gambling fronts — all pointing back to Dawood’s financial ecosystem. What appears on the surface as harmless online entertainment is, in reality, a sophisticated network of cross-border money movement and organised crime, operating under the cover of licensed gambling in distant tax havens.
While the Indian government claims that it banned Lotus 365 in February 2023 under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, the reality on the ground tells a far darker story. More than two dozen companies linked to the underworld don remain active across India, continuing to run betting, gambling and casino operations unabated.
Even after the recent enactment of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, this illegal industry remains operational. It has, in fact, expanded deeper into rural India, reaching villages with a more organised and entrenched criminal structure than ever before. Following the ban, the underworld consolidated its empire across Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, setting up over two dozen new front companies to continue operations.
The Government of India maintains that all betting and gambling entities were shut down after the 2025 Act, but in reality, Dawood’s networks, along with many other platforms such as Mahadev Book, continue to operate fearlessly through online betting platforms. The associates of many arrested handlers in the Mahadev Book case, including Saurabh Chandrakar, Ravi Uppal, Paramjeet Singh, Shubham Soni, Ratanlal Jain, Harishankar Tibrewal and Girish Talreja, are still operating in broad daylight.
Like Dream11, Lotus 365 has altered its structure to evade scrutiny, launching new betting brands with unique interfaces and business models under different timelines — 2020, 2022 and 2025. By 2022, Lotus 365 and its associated platforms — including CricketBook India, Diamond Exchange, Tiger Exchange, King Exchange, Silver Exchange, Shree Exchange, World777, Goldbet7, Gold365, Uniconbet, Unicon365, Magic Win, Sky Exchange, Lord Exchange, Laser 247, Rajbet Sports, 11X Play, Reddy Anna, Pari Match, 1Win, Betstarexch, UniconBet, Lotusbook247, Lotusfair.com, lotusbook247betting.net, Kricbet, Kenodowd.com, Lotus-Betting, Curacao-Egaming, Mahadev Book, Betfair and 4RABet — all claimed association with Lotus 365. Each of these platforms listed the same registered address: Abraham De Veerstraat 9, Curaçao, P.O. Box 840, confirming that these operators are either interconnected or identical entities.
Despite their known criminal links, Lotus 365 was openly promoted by Bollywood celebrities and advertised by major Indian newspapers such as Amar Ujala and Dainik Bhaskar — none of whom have faced legal action for endorsing what effectively became the world’s largest illegal betting and casino network.
At the tail end of this complex web, New Delhi Post identified more offshore links. One prominent name was Universal Directors Inc., P.O. Box 3152, Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands, which had written to its subsidiary Montilla Capital Inc., P.O. Box 840, Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, confirming: “Universal Directors Inc. is the sole director, president and secretary of Montilla Capital Inc.”
Its directors — D’Abreu De Paulo, Alberto Clodoaldo (President) and Greerman Edwin Ricardo (Secretary) — are all named in the ICIJ’s Paradise Papers, exposing the offshore roots of this global operation.
Another key entity, GrooveGaming, runs illegal online fantasy sports in India through Groove Technologies N.V., under the Aura Services N.V. trademark. The company provides game content, APIs, technical infrastructure and back-office systems to multiple online casinos.
Two prominent figures in its database — Yahale Meltzer and Zhirayr Movsesyan, both Armenian nationals — have been identified by the Armenian government as militants and were arrested with large quantities of weapons.
One of the most alarming revelations for India is that these companies’ payment systems operate through official Indian digital platforms — including UPI, Paytm, Google Pay, PhonePe, BHIM App, and both public and private banks. This integration gives foreign operators direct access to India’s digital payment infrastructure, opening the door to massive data breaches, espionage and surveillance risks. Such infiltration amounts to a foreign breach of India’s national security, posing a grave threat to the country’s financial system and armed forces.
Consumer data has quietly become one of the most valuable assets fuelling Dawood’s digital empire. OpenCorporates, a British platform founded in 2010, aggregates information from global sources, including online betting companies and India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs. This effectively allows sensitive Indian citizen and corporate data to be accessed abroad, representing a subtle but serious breach of national security.
Historical precedent underscores the danger. In 2011, Betfair’s prospectus revealed that millions of usernames and tens of thousands of bank details had been compromised. Today, platforms linked to Dawood routinely collect Aadhaar, PAN, bank and KYC information from Indian users, often without their knowledge. Once acquired, this data can be monetised, tracked or weaponised, with potential links to terrorism, extortion and large-scale financial fraud. Every login, payment and geolocation shared on these platforms can be accessed by operatives abroad, including in Pakistan, breaching India’s digital borders.
International betting, gambling and match-fixing networks siphon vast sums out of India, evade taxes, launder money and exploit consumer identities. Unlike legitimate enterprises, these shadow operations profit by eroding privacy, sovereignty and national security.
Dawood’s modern empire mirrors a 21st-century version of Dadabhai Naoroji’s “Drain of Wealth”, powered by data, deception and a silent digital plunder of the Indian nation. Britain established money laundering as a form of economic control over India, leading to the nation’s impoverishment. This transfer of money, which used to happen through remittances and colonial administration costs, is today being done through the international betting, gambling and fixing mafia under the guise of online fantasy sports.
(K. Ashish is an investigative journalist and editor-in-chief of New Delhi Post)
