ED attaches Rs 3.72 crore assets in Chinese loan app case

New Delhi [India] November 12 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached properties worth Rs 3.72 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in the case of Xue Fei, a Chinese national, and others related to Chinese loan app case.
The attached properties are in the form of bank balance and fixed deposits amounting to Rs 3.12 Crore and one immovable property (residential flat) worth Rs 60 lakh situated at SAS Nagar Mohali Punjab, beneficially owned by Ravi Natvarlal Thakkar a close associate of the main accused Xue Fei and others.
Earlier on June 13, properties worth Rs 13.51 crore have already been attached in this case. Now, the total amount of attachment in this case stands at Rs 17.23 crore.
ED initiated the investigation based on FIR and subsequent charge sheets filed by Special Task Force, Uttar Pradesh Police, Gautam Buddha Nagar for offences committed under various sections of the IPC, 1860, the Foreigners Act, 1946 and Information Technology Act, 2000.
ED investigation revealed that Xue Fie, a Chinese national, was staying in India illegally and he along with Ravi Natvarlal Thakkar and others were running and controlling two hotels and clubs namely Luckin Club Private Limited and Tianshang Renjian Private Limited in NCR areas, exclusively for Chinese nationals, especially those who used to enter and stay in India illegally.
"In these hotels, various illegal activities and services like gambling and prostitution by underage girls were being carried by Xue Fei and his cartel. They had opened multiple paper/bogus companies having puppet and dummy directors and were operating various instant loan apps like Rupee Plus, Lucky Wallet, Flash Paisa, Paisa Karo, Hi Paisa, Radha Money etc. under the umbrella of such companies," said the ED.
"They were charging heavy interest rates and in case of delayed payment of EMI used to get access to personal data of borrowers and used to blackmail & threaten them in the guise of loan recovery. This way they cheated the people and borrowers on pan India basis and collected huge amounts running in crores of rupees, which they infused into a web of companies through circular transactions through bogus and shell companies controlled by the Chinese Cartel. They were also involved in the illegal trade of e-waste and extraction of PCB, mobile chip and motherboard etc. from the same," said the agency.