New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has raided the premises of online payment gateways, companies such as Razorpay, Paytm and Cashfree, as part of its ongoing probe against illegal smartphone-based instant loans controlled by Chinese individuals. “Search operation under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA 2002) was conducted at six premises in Bengaluru in connection with investigation related to Chinese loan app case on September 2,” the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement. The Federal Investigation Agency said that it has seized Rs 17 crore kept in merchant IDs and bank accounts of these apps controlled by Chinese individuals during the raid.
The ED said in its statement, “It has been learned that the said entities were carrying on their suspicious/illegal business through various merchant IDs/accounts maintained with payment gateways/banks.” The premises of Razorpay Pvt Ltd, Cashfree Payments, Paytm Payment Services Ltd and entities controlled/operated by Chinese persons have been included in the search operation in this regard. “The documents recovered during the raid revealed that these entities were generating proceeds of crime through various merchant IDs/accounts maintained with payment gateways/banks and through MCA (Ministry of Corporate Affairs),” the central probe agency said. They are not working from the registered address on the website, but the addresses provided by them are fake.
The ED said that its investigation under the Money Laundering Act is based on at least 18 FIRs registered by various cyber crime stations of Bengaluru Police. These cases have been registered on behalf of persons who had taken small amount of loan through mobile apps of these institutions and are troubled by the extortion and harassment of the said institutions. Let us tell you that in a money laundering probe into 365 loan apps operating in the country and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) in partnership with them, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has allegedly collected over Rs 800 crore of ‘crime proceeds’. source has been found.
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Tags: Directorate of Enforcement, loan
FIRST PUBLISHED : September 03, 2022, 14:54 IST
