The enforcement directorate (ED) has frozen Rs 46.67 crore held in merchant accounts maintained by Paytm, Razorpay, Cashfree and Easebuzz in instant Chinese loan app case, sources informed CNBC-TV18.
"Rs 33.36 crore was found with Easebuzz Pvt Ltd, Pune and Rs 8.21 crore with Razorpay Software Pvt Ltd, Bangalore. Moreover, Rs 1.28 crore was found with Cashfree Payments India Pvt Ltd, Bangalore and Rs 1.11 crore with Paytm Payments Services Limited, New Delhi," sources said.
This amounts to Rs 46.67 crore.
As per ED's investigation, Lillion Technocab and Shigoo Technology pvt Ltd used to route their money via HPZ token to the merchant accounts of Paytm, Cashfree, Easebuzz and Razorpay. ED claimed that Shigoo Technology Private Limited has various links with Chinese controlled companies.
Commenting on the same, Paytm said that ED instructed them to freeze certain amount from MIDs of specific merchant entities and none of these funds belong to them or their group companies.
Cashfree Payments, meanwhile, said that they are extending their co-operation to the ED operations.
"We were able to provide the required and necessary information within a few hours on the day of enquiry. The operations and on boarding process of Cashfree payments are fully compliant with existing regulations," it said.
Easebuzz spokesperson said that none of the parties mentioned in the ED’s statement belonged to their merchant base.
"The mentioned entities by authorities were only the counterparties of the merchant, who was using our payment gateway and this merchant had been proactively identified and blocked by us much before the investigation
had started, as per our internal risk and compliance process. We intend to fully co-operate with the investigation authorities, as we are committed to ensure that our business operations comply with the existing regulations," it said.
Additionally, Razorpay spokesperson said that they have proactively blocked all those suspicious entities and funds associated with them, and have shared their details with authorities.
"None of the funds which have been directed to be frozen by the authorities belong to Razorpay. We will continue to provide necessary information to authorities to assist in this investigation. We would like to reiterate that all our operations and on-boarding processes adhere to the highest standards of governance and regulatory guidelines," it said.
On September 2, ED had carried out search operations under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 at six premises in Bengaluru, Karnataka with respect to the investigation relating to the Chinese loan app case.
The federal probe agency said that it seized Rs 17 crore worth funds kept in "merchant IDs and bank accounts of these Chinese persons-controlled entities," during the raids.
During enquiries, it emerged that these entities are controlled/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. It came to notice that the said entities were doing their suspected/illegal business through various Merchant IDs/Accounts held with Payment Gateways/banks.
The agency initiated the probe under the
Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after taking over at least 18 first information reports (FIRs) registered by the Cyber Crime Police Station of Bengaluru police against numerous entities and persons.
(Edited by : Anshul)
First Published: Sept 16, 2022 12:58 PM IST
