The Enforcement Directorate Friday mentioned it has filed a cost sheet towards cost gateway Razorpay, three fintech firms managed by Chinese nationals and as many NBFCs and a few others in a cash laundering probe linked to Chinese mortgage apps which allegedly cheated quite a few individuals.
The federal probe company mentioned in a press release that the particular Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court docket based mostly in Bengaluru has taken cognisance of the prosecution criticism (chargesheet).
A complete of seven entities and 5 people have been named as accused in the cost sheet.
The accused entities embrace fintech firms Mad Elephant Network Technology Private Limited, Baryonyx Technology Private Limited and Cloud Atlas Future Technology Private Limited that are “controlled” by the Chinese nationals and three non-banking monetary firms (NBFCs) registered with RBI named X10 Financial Services Private Limited, Track Fin-ed Private Limited and Jamnadas Morarjee Finance Private Limited.
Payment gateway Razorpay Software Private Limited has additionally been named in the cost sheet as an accused, the company mentioned.
The cash laundering case of the ED stems from a number of FIRs of the Bengaluru Police CID which had been filed based mostly on complaints obtained from varied prospects who had availed loans and “faced harassment” from the restoration agent of those money-lending firms.
According to the ED, the probe discovered that fintech firms had “agreement with respective NBFCs for disbursement of loans through digital lending apps”.
“The money-lending business was being illegally run by these fintech companies actually and these NBFCs knowingly let these firms use their names for the sake of getting commission without being careful about their conduct. The same is also a violation of the fair practices code of the Reserve Bank of India,” the company mentioned.
The company earlier had issued two provisional attachment orders to freeze Rs 77.25 crore price funds stored in financial institution accounts and cost gateways which was later confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority of the PMLA.
