ED searches PayTM, Easebuzz, Razorpay, Cashfree, freezes Rs 46 crore in Chinese loan app case
India Today
The ED has frozen Rs 46.67 crore kept in various bank accounts and virtual accounts of Easebuzz, Razorpay, Cashfree and Paytm after conducting searches in connection with Chinese loan app case.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen Rs 46.67 crore kept in various bank accounts and virtual accounts of payment gateways PayTM, Easebuzz, Razorpay and Cashfree after conducting searches in connection with Chinese loan app case, officials said.
The financial probe agency on September 14 carried out searches at six locations in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad and Lucknow, Mumbai and Bihar’s Gaya. Apart from these premises, the officials also searched 16 other premises of payment gateways PayTM, Easebuzz, Razorpay and Cashfree in Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Bangalore in connection with a money laundering case lodged against app-based token named HPZ and its related entities.
During the searches, ED found that huge balances were maintained in the virtual accounts of the involved entities with payment aggregators.
“Rs 33.36 crore was 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). A total amount of around Rs 46.67 crore was detected and frozen in various bank accounts and virtual accounts,” the ED said in a statement.
The agency initiated a money laundering investigation on the basis of FIR filed by Nagaland Police last year.
The HPZ Token was an app-based token which promised users of large gains against investment by investing in mining machines for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The modus-operandi of the fraudsters was to first lure the victims to invest in the company on the pretext of doubling their investment through the app HPZ Token. Payments were received from users through UPIs and other various payment gateways, nodal accounts or individuals.
Initially, part amount was paid back to the investors but later remaining amount was allegedly diverted to various individual and company accounts through various payment gateways and banks from where partly it was siphoned off in virtual currencies. After that, the alleged fraudsters stopped the payments and the website became inaccessible.
