BENGALURU: The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday said it raided six premises of online payment gateways such as RazorPay, Paytm and Cashfree in Bengaluru over alleged irregularities in instant app-based loans “controlled” by Chinese individuals.
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The agency said this evening that as part of the ongoing investigation, the search which started on Friday is still going on. The Federal Investigation Agency also said that during the raids, it has seized money worth Rs 17 crore held in “merchant IDs and bank accounts of entities controlled by these Chinese individuals”.
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Razorpay and Cashfree responded that they were cooperating with the federal agency while Paytm declined to comment. A Razorpay spokesperson said, “Some of our merchants were being investigated by law enforcement about a year and a half ago. As part of an ongoing investigation, officials requested additional information to help with the investigation.”
“We have fully cooperated and shared KYC and other details. The officials were satisfied with our due diligence process.” Cashfree Payments said that their “operations and on-boarding procedures comply with PMLA and KYC guidelines, and we will continue to do so.”
“We extended our full cooperation in the conduct of the ED, providing them with the necessary and necessary information on the same day of interrogation,” the spokesperson said.
These payment gateway firms have been the target of ED action since 2020, soon after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in the country.
The ED launched a probe under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after several cases of gullible borrowers ending their lives from different states, in which the police said they were coerced and harassed by them. He is going. Loan app companies take high-end methods to threaten them by making their personal details available in their phones public.
It was alleged that the companies sourced all personal data of borrowers while downloading these apps to their phones, even though their interest rates were “useful”. Talking about the present case, the ED said that the “methodology” of these entities was that they used forged documents of Indians and made them dummy directors thereby generating “income of crime”.
“These entities are controlled/run by Chinese individuals.” “It is learned that the said entities were carrying on their suspicious/illegal business through various merchant IDs/accounts with payment gateways/banks,” the ED said.
“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”, it said.
The agency said that the various merchants under investigation were generating proceeds of crime through accounts maintained with IDs/payment gateways/banks and also from the addresses given on the MCA (Ministry of Corporate Affairs) website/registered addresses. are not working.
The ED probe found that these companies had “fake” addresses. The ED said that this money laundering case was based on at least 18 FIRs registered by the Bengaluru Police Cyber Crime Station against “several entities/individuals who were involved in harassment and harassment of the public, who made small amounts of money through mobile phones”. had taken loan of amount. Apps being run by those entities/individuals.”