Chinese Loan Apps Case: ED Freezes Rs 46.67 Crore Of Payment Gateways

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said it has frozen Rs 46.67 crore kept in bank and virtual accounts of payment gateways Easebuzz, Razorpay, Cashfree and Paytm after recent raids against fraudulent Chinese loan apps.

The agency found Rs 33.36 crore with Easebuzz Pvt Ltd, Pune; Rs 8.21 crore with Razorpay Software Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru; Rs 1.28 crore with Cashfree Payments India Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru, and Rs 1.11 crore with Paytm Payments Services Ltd.

The ED launched the raids on September 14 at several locations in Delhi, Mumbai, Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Gaya. Sixteen premises of banks and payment gateways in Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Bengaluru were also searched.

The searches were connected to the app-based token named HPZ and related entities.

The ED case is based on an FIR of November 8, 2021 registered by Cyber Crime police station, Kohima.

Earlier this month, the ED carried out raids on at least three online payment gateways in Bengaluru as part of its probe into Chinese loan apps.

With a large number of victims from Odisha, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Odisha, is also probing the Chinese loan app racket.

A Chinese national, identified as Liu Yi, is wanted by the EOW, Odisha, in connection with the loan app racket. He is believed to be in Nepal. Yi allegedly ran many illegal mobile loan apps like KOKO, JOJO, Golden Lightning, Silver Kredit, Gold Cash, Speedy Rupee and Xpress Credit.

The Bureau of Immigration (BOI) too has issued a lookout circular against three Chinese nationals — Shen Zhenhua alias Tony of Jiangsu, Quan Hongwei alias Paul of Jiangsu, and Yang Haiying alias Doris of Sichuan — for defrauding lakhs of people through an illegal digital loan app, ‘Kredit Gold Loan App’, following a request from EOW, Odisha.

At least 22 people have been arrested from different parts of the country in connection with the Rs 500-crore loan-cum-extortion racket.