The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has banned Chinese-controlled lending apps and investment tokens and Rs. Raid on frozen funds of Rs. 46.67 crore are placed in payment gateways like Easebuzz, Razorpay, Cashfree and Paytm. The federal agency is said to have frozen the accounts under anti-money laundering laws. According to a report, raids were conducted at several locations of the accused in Delhi, Mumbai, Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Gaya on Wednesday. Around Rs. 33.36 crore found with Easebuzz in Pune, while Rs. 8.21 crore found from Razerpay in Bangalore.
According to a PTI report, the ED earlier this week raided the premises of online payment gateways including Eazbuzz, RazerPay, CashFree and Paytm, as part of ongoing investigations into Chinese-controlled companies and investment tokens. 50 lakhs have been seized by the central agency. Funds of Rs 46.67 crore are kept in various bank accounts and virtual accounts.
The raids were conducted under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. According to reports, the case was registered in October 2021 by the Cyber Crime Unit of the Kohima Police in Nagaland.
On Wednesday, searches were conducted at several places of the accused in Delhi, Mumbai, Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Gaya. Sixteen premises and payment gateways of banks in Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Bengaluru were searched in connection with an investigation into an app-based token called HPZ and other entities, the report said. Statement by ED.
The ED has reportedly seized various incriminating documents during the search operation. Funds were found to be kept in virtual accounts of organizations involved with payment aggregators. A total of Rs. 33.36 crore found with Easebuzz in Pune, while Rs. 8.21 crore was seized from RazerPay in Bangalore. ED to Rs. 1.28 crore with cashless payment in Bangalore and Rs. 1.11 crore with Paytm in New Delhi.
