New Delhi, Sep 3 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Saturday that they have conducted search operations at six distinct places in Bengaluru in connection with its investigation into the Chinese loan apps fraud case.According to reports that the Financial Investigation Agency scoured the premises that are associated with PayTM, Razorpay and Cashfree All payment gateways that allegedly facilitate loans on apps that were not authorised operated by Chinese-owned companies.
“During the search it was discovered that the aforementioned entities were making money of criminality through a variety of merchant IDs/accounts with banks or payment gateways.They also were working from addresses provided on the MCA website or registered address.
A sum of 17 crore rupees was found in account of merchant IDs as well as bank accounts of these Chinese-owned enterprises,” said an ED official.
The official further stated that it came to the attention of the ED the entities involved were conducting business with various merchant IDs/accounts registered with banks and payment gateways.
In the meantime, a Razorpay spokesperson stated, “Some of our merchants were under investigation by law enforcement agencies a few months back.In the course of the investigation that is ongoing, the authorities demanded additional information to aid with the probe.
We have been completely cooperative and have provided KYC as well as other information.The authorities were pleased by the due diligence procedure we followed.”
The case is founded on 18 FIRs that were registered by the cyber crime police station in Bengaluru against a number of people in relation with their participation in the extortion and harassment of people who had taken advantage of a small amounts of loans through mobile apps operated by these entities.
“During the investigation it was discovered that these organizations were owned by Chinese individuals.
The method of operation of the entities was to use fake documents of Indians and making them pretend directors of the organizations,” an ED official stated.
The search is in the process, according to sources.
atk/arm
