Highlights
- ED is conducting raids at Bengaluru premises of on-line fee gateways like Razorpay, Paytm
- The searches had been launched Friday at six premises in Karnataka’s capital metropolis
- ED mentioned its cash laundering case is predicated on 18 FIRs filed by the Bengaluru Police cyber crime
The Enforcement Directorate Saturday mentioned it’s conducting raids at Bengaluru premises of on-line fee gateways like Razorpay, Paytm and Cashfree as half of an ongoing probe towards “illegal” instantaneous smartphone-based loans “controlled” by Chinese individuals.
The searches had been launched Friday at six premises in Karnataka’s capital metropolis, it mentioned in an announcement.
The search operation is in progress, the Enforcement Directorate mentioned.
The federal probe company mentioned it has seized Rs 17 crore value funds stored in “merchant IDs and bank accounts of these Chinese persons-controlled entities”, through the raids.
The modus operandi of these entities is that they use cast paperwork of Indians and make them dummy administrators resulting in technology of “proceeds of crime”, it alleged.
“These entities are controlled/operated by Chinese persons,” it mentioned.
“It has come to notice that the said entities were doing their suspected/illegal business through various merchant IDs/accounts held with payment gateways/banks.”
“The premises of Razorpay Pvt Ltd, Cashfree Payments, Paytm Payment Services Ltd and entities controlled/operated by Chinese persons are covered in the search operation,” the ED mentioned.
The entities beneath investigation had been producing proceeds of crime by varied service provider IDs/accounts held with fee gateways/banks and they’re additionally not working from the addresses given on the MCA (ministry of company affairs) web site/registered handle and so they have “fake” addresses, the company mentioned.
The ED mentioned its cash laundering case is predicated on no less than 18 FIRs filed by the Bengaluru Police cyber crime station towards “numerous entities/persons in connection with their involvement in extortion and harassment of the public who had availed small amount of loans through the mobile apps being run by those entities/persons.”
