Three held in online betting case sent to 8-day ED custody

NEW DELHI: A Chinese national, Yan Hao, and his two accomplices arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case were remanded in its custody for eight days by a PMLA court in Hyderabad on Tuesday, the agency said.

An ED official said that the Special PMLA court sent Hao, DhirajSarkar and AnkitKapoor in ED custody after they were arrested in a money laundering case related to online betting applications run by Chinese nationals. The ED registered the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act on the basis of FIRs lodged by the Cybercrime Station in Hyderabad against Dokypay Technology Private Limited and LinkyunTechnolgy Private Limited and others involved in the online betting scam.

The official said that the accused had set up a large number of websites to attract gullible persons to become members and to place bets on various online applications that promised attractive rewards on simple games of chance.

"Paytm and Cashfree were used to collect money and pay commissions to all agents and members. Hundreds of websites were created to promote online betting under the garb of e-commerce," the official said. The ED searches at 15 locations in Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai, and Pune led to the seizure of 17 hard disks, five laptops, mobile phones and incriminating documents. The official said that the ED had frozen Rs 46.96 crore held in four accounts in HSBC Bank.

An investigation to identify the major beneficiaries of the payouts from Paytm and HSBC Bank accounts is in progress. "We have issued summonses to several persons, including Chinese nationals who are said to be directors of the company," the official said, adding that these websites also acted as payment aggregators for multiple applications banned by Google Play for lax technical security, data theft, or betting activities. The ED official claimed that these companies were planning to set up a non-banking financial company for micro credits but were refused a licence by the regulatory authorities, adding that the scam could involve more than Rs 1,000 crore. (IANS)

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