New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said Friday it has frozen fresh deposits worth Rs 78 crore following searches at the premises of payment gateway company Razorpay and some banks. The raids were carried out as part of an ongoing money laundering probe against the alleged illegal operations of loan apps ‘controlled’ by Chinese nationals. The searches were carried out October 19 at five premises in Bangalore the Enforcement Directorate said. Razorpay however, said it cooperated with the agency and its funds were not seized.
The money laundering case stems from 18 FIRs filed by the cyber crime police station of Bangalore 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. 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,” the ED 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 Enforcement Directorate added.
Also read: Chinese loan apps: ED freezes over Rs 46 crore kept in payment gateway accounts
The agency had earlier seized deposits worth Rs 17 crore in the case. The ED said fresh searches were carried out at the premises of Razorpay Pvt Ltd and the compliance offices of some of the banks.
A Razorpay spokesperson said the company cooperated with the ED as always to support the agency with necessary merchant information. “This recent visit by the ED is part of the ongoing investigation against a few suspicious entities who conducted illegal business through multiple payment gateways/banks. We proactively blocked all those suspicious entities and funds associated with them about 1.5 years ago, and have shared their details with the ED multiple times,” the spokesperson said.
“All our operations and onboarding processes adhere to the highest standards of governance and regulatory guidelines. No funds of Razorpay were frozen,” the spokesperson asserted.