New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached movable and immovable assets worth Rs 11.14 crore belonging to former cricketers Suresh Raina and Shikhar Dhawan in connection with a money laundering case linked to online betting platform 1xBet.
According to ED officials, an order has been issued to attach mutual fund investments worth Rs 6.64 crore held in the name of Raina and an immovable property valued at Rs 4.5 crore owned by Dhawan.
It may be recalled that as part of its probe, the central agency had recorded statements of Dhawan, Raina, Yuvraj Singh and Robin Uthappa in September.
The investigation, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), is based on multiple FIRs registered by police in several states against operators of the illegal offshore betting platform 1xBet, an ED spokesperson said.
The probe revealed that left-hand batters Raina and Dhawan, both of whom had distinguished careers for Team India, knowingly entered into endorsement agreements with foreign entities for the promotion of 1xBet through their surrogates.
“These endorsements were made in return for payments routed through foreign entities to conceal the illicit origin of the funds, which are linked to proceeds of crime generated from illegal betting activities,” the spokesperson said.
“Probe has revealed that 1xBet and its surrogate brand 1xBat, 1xbat Sporting lines were engaged in promoting and facilitating illegal online betting and gambling operations across India,” the spokesperson added.
1xBet carried out unauthorised operations in India, using surrogate branding and advertisements to target Indian users through social media, online videos and print media.
“Payments for endorsements were structured through layered transactions using foreign intermediaries to disguise the illegal source of funds. The attachment follows ED’s search operations under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA),” the spokesperson said.
Besides the former Team India cricketers, ED also quizzed actor Sonu Sood, actress and former TMC MP Mimi Chakraborty, Bollywood actress Urvashi Rautela and Bengali actor Ankush Hazra.
Multiple searches were carried out, during which incriminating evidence was seized.
“Over 60 bank accounts linked to these payment gateways have been frozen. An amount of over Rs 4 crore has been frozen so far,” the spokesperson informed.
“Probe has also revealed that 1xbet was facilitating betting and gambling for Indian users by collecting money through various mule accounts and it came to fore so far that they had used over 6,000 mule accounts for deposits. Amounts collected from users in these mule accounts were routed through multiple payment gateways to disguise their origin and merchants were onboarded on these gateways without any KYC verifications,” the spokesperson said.
“On verification of profile of these merchants, it is seen that the entities declared business activities did not match their transaction patterns, indicating laundering of funds exceeding Rs 1000 crore,” the spokesperson added.
