The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said it has frozen Rs 46.67 crore funds of merchant entities kept in online payment gateway accounts of Easebuzz, Razorpay, Cashfree and Paytm following searches this week against a “Chinese-controlled” investment token app HPZ Token.
The funds have been frozen under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The latest action comes after the Enforcement Directorate (ED), earlier this month, searched the Bengaluru premises of Razorpay, Paytm and Cashfree over alleged irregularities in the operations of instant app-based loan-giving companies “controlled” by Chinese persons. Later, a seizure order for Rs 17 crore kept in their accounts was issued. The latest searches were launched on September 14 at multiple premises of the accused in Delhi, Mumbai, Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Gaya in a money laundering case being probed against an app-based token called HPZ and related entities.
Sixteen premises of banks and payment gateways in Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Bengaluru were also searched by the ED as part of the same operation, the ED said in a statement.
The ED case, filed under PMLA, stems from an October 2021 FIR against the accused company and its linked persons by the Kohima Police’s cybercrime unit in Nagaland.
“During the search, various incriminating documents have been seized. Huge balances were found 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, Bengaluru, Rs 1.28 crore with Cashfree Payments India Private Limited, Bengaluru and Rs 1.11 crore with Paytm Payments Services Limited, New Delhi,” the ED said.
Rs 46.67 crore was frozen in various bank accounts and virtual accounts, it said.
The ED said HPZ Token “promised users of large gains by investing in mining machines for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.” The “fraudsters” lured the victims to invest in the company on the pretext of doubling their investment through the HPZ Token app, it said.
“Payments were received from users through UPI and other various payment gateways/nodal accounts/individuals,” it said.