The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has conducted fresh raids at several Paytm and PayU payment gateway facilities. The raid is related to Chinese loan apps. The raids have taken place in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram, Lucknow, and Kolkata, according to sources. However, there has been no official comment from the Enforcement Directorate regarding these raids.
The most recent raids took place on September 3 at the offices of online payment gateways such as Razorpay Pvt Ltd, Cashfree Payments, and Paytm Payment Services Ltd.
The case is based on 18 FIRs filed by the Cyber Crime Police Station in Bengaluru City against a number of individuals for their involvement in extortion and harassment of members of the public who had obtained modest loans through the mobile applications operated by those organizations.
“During investigations, it was discovered that these entities are run by Chinese people. The mode of operation of these entities is to generate criminal proceeds by employing forged documents of Indians and making them dummy directors of those entities “According to the ED.
According to the ED, it was discovered that the entities were operating their alleged business through numerous Merchant IDs/Accounts held with Payment Gateways/banks.
The federal probe agency said it has seized Rs 17 crore worth funds kept in “merchant IDs and bank accounts of these Chinese persons-controlled entities”, during the raids.
Meanwhile, a Razorpay representative said “A year and a half ago, law enforcement was looking into some of our merchants. Authorities requested additional information to assist with the ongoing inquiry as part of the ongoing investigation. We fully collaborated and exchanged KYC and other information. Our due diligence process pleased the authorities.”
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