New Delhi: According to the big news coming from Bangalore, today the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is under investigation against the Chinese loan app, and online payment gateways like Razorpay, Paytm, and Cashfree, have tremendously attacked the locations located here. Raids are being conducted.
On this matter, the investigating agency said that searches were started in six premises in Bengaluru on Friday. At present, the search operation is still going on. However, during the raid, the ED seized Rs 17 crore. This money was deposited in the accounts of the people controlling these loan apps. At the same time, according to the ED, it has also come known that the said entities were carrying on suspicious and illegal business through payment gateways and various merchant IDs and accounts maintained with banks.
The ED initiated a probe under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after a number of instances of gullible debtors ending their lives came to the fore from various states, with the police stating they were being coerced and harassed by these loan app (application) companies by publicizing their personal details available in their phones and by undertaking high-handed methods to threaten them.
It was alleged that the companies sourced all personal data of the loan-taker at the time downloading of these apps on their phones, even as their interest rates were “usurious”.
Talking about the instant case, the ED said the “modus operandi” of these entities was that they use forged documents of Indians and made them dummy directors leading to the generation of “proceeds of crime”.
“These entities are controlled/operated by Chinese persons.”
“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 ED said.
It said 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 entities under investigation were generating proceeds of crime through various merchant IDs/accounts held with payment gateways/banks and they are also not operating from the addresses given on the MCA (ministry of corporate affairs) website/registered address, the agency said.
Along with this, the ED has said that this case of money laundering, under which the raids are currently going on, is being held based on at least 18 FIRs registered by the Bangalore Police Cyber Crime Station. These FIRs have been registered against many institutions and individuals. In these cases, the accused have been accused of harassment by them even for recovery of loans of small amounts.
Let us tell you that these organizations are accused of using fake documents of Indians and making them dummy directors. But only Chinese people run these institutions.
