In accordance with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, as part of an investigation into the Chinese Loan App Case, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) searched five locations in Bengaluru on October 19, 2022. According to Section 17(1), the bank accounts and merchant IDs of these Chinese person-controlled organisations that contained the sum of Rs 78 Crore have been frozen. As of right today, there have been 95 crore rupees in seizures in this case.
Who filled the Case?
The case is based on 18 FIRs that the Cyber Crime Police Station in Bengaluru City filed against various businesses and people in connection with their role in harassing and squeezing members of the public who had taken out minor loans through their mobile applications.
Why Chinese Loans apps?
During the PMLA investigation, it has emerged that these entities are controlled/operated by Chinese Nationals.
How does this Scam take place?
Some organisations employ falsified Indian documents to create fake directors. These organisations produce criminal gain. These organisations used a variety of Merchant IDs and Account with banks and payment gateways to conduct their alleged unlawful activity.
The search operation was performed in this case based on the findings of the inquiry and the input from Bengaluru’s Central Crime Branch. The search operation included the locations of Razorpay Pvt Ltd and the Bank’s compliance offices connected to these firms. It was discovered during the search operation that the aforementioned companies were using numerous Merchant IDs/Accounts held with Payment Gateways/Banks to generate proceeds of crime and that they had provided false addresses in KYC papers.
