Highlight
- One97 Communications discovered any links with merchants under Chinese loan app case
- Paytm said none of the funds deposited by ED belong to it or any of its group firms
- The ED on Saturday said it has raided six premises of the online payment gateway
Digital financial services firm One97 Communications, which operates under the Paytm brand, on Sunday denied any association with merchants who are under the purview of the Enforcement Directorate in the Chinese loan app case.
Paytm said that none of the funds deposited by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) belong to it or any of its group firms.
“As a part of the ongoing investigation on a specific group of merchants, the ED has sought information on merchants to whom we provide payment processing solutions. We would like to clarify that these merchants are independent entities, and they None of us is a group entity,” Paytm said in a regulatory filing.
The ED on Saturday said it has raided six premises of online payment gateways, such as RazorPay, Paytm and Cashfree, in Bengaluru over alleged irregularities in instant app-based loans “controlled” by Chinese individuals.
The agency said that as part of the ongoing investigation, the search which started on Friday is still going on.
The Federal Investigation Agency also said that during the raid, it confiscated money worth Rs 17 crore held in “merchant IDs and bank accounts of entities controlled by these Chinese individuals”.
“It may be noted that the ED has directed us to freeze certain amount from the Merchant ID (MID) of a specific set of merchant entities (as mentioned by the ED in its press release). It is further noted that May be given that no funds, which have been directed to freeze, belong to Paytm or any of our group companies,” Paytm said.
The ED launched a probe under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after several cases of gullible borrowers ending their lives from different states, in which the police said they were coerced and harassed by them. He is going. Loan app companies take high-end methods to threaten them by making their personal details available in their phones public.
It was alleged that the companies sourced all personal data of borrowers while downloading these apps to their phones, even though their interest rates were “useful”.
The agency had said that the alleged proceeds of crime in the case were routed through these payment gateways.
Talking about the present case, the ED said that the “methodology” of these entities was that they used forged documents of Indians and made them dummy directors for generation of “proceeds of crime”.
“These entities are controlled/run by Chinese individuals.”
The ED had said, “It is learned that the said entities were carrying on their suspicious/illegal business through various merchant IDs/payment gateways/banks’ accounts.”
Paytm said that it is fully cooperating with the authorities, and all instructional work is being duly followed.