In connection with a case involving Chinese Loan applications, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting raids at various locations owned by payment gateways like as Paytm and PayU.
According to sources, there have been raids in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram, Lucknow, and Kolkata. The ED has not made any official statements regarding the situation.
The offices of online payment gateways Razorpay Pvt Ltd, Cashfree Payments, and Paytm Payment Services Ltd were raided on September 3. The case is based on 18 FIRs that the Cyber Crime Police Station in Bengaluru City filed against various individuals for their involvement in extortion and harassment of members of the public who had applied for minor loans through the mobile apps those businesses were operating.
“It was discovered through inquiries that Chinese people are running these organisations. The way these businesses operate is by employing falsified Indians’ identification cards and designating them as fake directors in order to generate proceeds of crime, according to the ED.
The ED had stated that it had come to their attention that the organisations were carrying out their allegedly illegal operation using a number of Merchant IDs and Accounts held with banks and payment gateways. The search operation included the locations of organisations managed or run by Chinese people, including Razorpay Pvt Ltd, Cashfree Payments, Paytm Payment Services Ltd, and others.
“During the search operations, it was discovered that the aforementioned entities were generating proceeds of crime through a variety of Merchant IDs/Accounts held with Payment Gateways/Banks and that they were also operating from fake addresses rather than the addresses listed on the MCA website/registered addresses. The ED official had stated that money belonging to these Chinese people-controlled organisations totaling Rs 17 crore had been frozen in their bank accounts and merchant IDs.
