ED raids six locations in Bengaluru in Chinese loan app case

New Delhi [India], September 3 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out search operations at six premises in Bengaluru in respect to an investigation relating to the Chinese loan app case.
The federal agency conducted the raids under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, the agency said on Saturday.
The premises of Razorpay Pvt Ltd, Cashfree Payments, Paytm Payment Services Ltd and entities controlled and operated by Chinese Persons were covered in the search operation, said the ED.
During the search operation, ED said, it is noticed that the entities raided were generating proceeds of crime through various merchant IDs and accounts held with payment gateways and banks and they are also not operating from the addresses given on the MCA website or registered addresses and having fake addresses.
"An amount of Rs 17 crore have been seized in merchant IDs and bank accounts of these Chinese persons-controlled entities," said the agency.
The case is based on 18 FIRs registered by Cyber Crime Police Station, Bengaluru City against numerous entities and persons in connection with their involvement in extortion and harassment of the public who had availed small amounts of loans through the mobile apps being run by those entities and persons.
During enquiries, ED said, it has emerged that these entities are controlled or operated by Chinese persons.
"The modus operandi of these entities is by using forged documents of Indians and making them as dummy directors of those entities, they are generating proceeds of crime," said the ED.
"It has come to notice that the said entities were doing their suspected and illegal business through various Merchant IDs and Accounts held with payment gateways and banks."
Following the ED raids, Paytm said it will cooperate with enforcement agencies for the probe.
"We are supporting law enforcement agencies, who are investigating a specific set of merchants. The authorities reached out to us with directions to provide certain information about these merchants under scrutiny, to which we promptly responded. We continue to cooperate with the authorities and remain fully compliant," a Paytm spokesperson told ANI.