Chinese loan apps: ED freezes deposits worth Rs 78 crore after raids on Razorpay, others

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 21

The Enforcement Directorate today said it has frozen fresh deposits worth Rs 78 crore following raids at the premises of payment gateway Razorpay and some banks as part of its ongoing probe under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against the alleged illegal operations of loan apps “controlled” by Chinese nationals.

The searches were carried out at five premises in Bengaluru on October 19, the ED said in an official statement.

The ED’s case under provisions of the PMLA is based on 18 FIRs filed by the cyber crime police station of Bengaluru police against numerous entities/persons for their involvement in extortion and harassment of the public, who had availed small amounts of loans through the mobile apps being run by them.

“These entities are controlled/operated by Chinese nationals. The modus operandi of these entities is to use forged documents of Indians and make them dummy directors and generate proceeds of crime,” the ED’s statement read.

“It has come to notice that the said entities were doing their suspected/illegal business through various merchant IDs/accounts held with payment gateways and banks,” it further said.

These entities were generating “proceeds of crime” through various merchant IDs/accounts held with payment gateways and banks and they have submitted fake addresses in KYC documents.

“An amount of Rs 78 crore has been seized in merchant IDs (held in payment gateways) and bank accounts of these Chinese persons-controlled entities. The total seizure in the case now stands at Rs 95 crore,” the ED said, adding that it had earlier seized deposits worth Rs 17 crore in the case.

It said fresh searches were carried out at the premises of Razorpay Pvt Ltd and compliance offices of some of the banks. These payment gateway firms have been in the ED’s scanner since 2020, soon after the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, it added.

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