The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday, 3 September, said it was conducting raids at Bengaluru premises of online payment gateways like Razorpay, Paytm, and Cashfree as part of an ongoing probe against "illegal" instant smartphone-based loans "controlled" by Chinese persons.
The searches were launched on Friday at six premises in Karnataka's capital city, it said in a statement.
The federal probe agency said it seized Rs 17 crore worth funds kept in "merchant IDs and bank accounts of these Chinese persons-controlled entities", during the raids.
The modus operandi of these entities is that they use forged documents of Indians and make them dummy directors leading to generation of "proceeds of crime," it alleged.
"These entities are controlled/operated by Chinese persons," it said.
"It has come to notice that the said entities were doing their suspected/illegal business through various merchant IDs/accounts held with payment gateways/banks."Enforcement Directorate
The entities under investigation were generating proceeds of crime through various merchant IDs/accounts held with payment gateways/banks and they are also not operating from the addresses given on the MCA (ministry of corporate affairs) website/registered address and they have "fake" addresses, the agency said.
The ED said its money laundering case is based on at least 18 FIRs filed by the Bengaluru Police cyber crime station against "numerous entities/persons in connection with their involvement in extortion and harassment of the public who had availed small amount of loans through the mobile apps being run by those entities/persons."
Responding to the raids, a Razorpay spokesperson told The Quint, "A few of our merchants were being investigated by law enforcement about a year and a half back. As part of the ongoing investigation, the authorities requested additional information to help with the investigation. We have fully cooperated and shared KYC and other details. The authorities were satisfied by our due diligence process."
(With inputs from PTI)
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