Chinese loan apps: Enforcement Directorate freezes Rs 46-crore worth funds kept in payment gateway accounts
New Delhi, September 16
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it had frozen Rs 46.67 crore worth funds kept in payment gateways Easebuzz, Razorpay, Cashfree and Paytm after it carried out raids this week against Chinese-controlled loan apps and investment tokens.
The funds have been frozen under the anti-money-laundering law.
The searches were launched on September 14 at multiple premises of the accused in Delhi, Mumbai, Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Gaya.
Sixteen premises of banks and payment gateways in Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Bengaluru in respect of an investigation related to an app-based token named HPZ and related entities were also covered, the federal agency said in a statement.
The money-laundering case stems from an October, 2021 FIR filed by the cyber-crime unit of the Kohima police in Nagaland, it said.
“During the search, various incriminating documents have been seized,” it said.
“Huge balances were found to be maintained in the virtual accounts of the involved entities with payment aggregators like Rs 33.36 crore found with Easebuzz Private Limited, Pune; Rs 8.21 crore with Razorpay Software Private Limited, Bangalore; Rs 1.28 crore with Cashfree Payments India Private Limited, Bangalore; and Rs 1.11 crore with Paytm Payments Services Limited, New Delhi,” it said.
An amount of Rs 46.67 crore was detected and frozen in various bank accounts and virtual accounts, the ED said.
