Sambalpur: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at several premises in Sambalpur, Odisha, in the Mahadev Online Book Betting App case. Raids were also conducted at several locations in Delhi, Mumbai, Indore, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Chennai under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
So far, ED has conducted searches at more than 170 premises. Movable and immovable assets worth nearly Rs 3002.47 crore have been seized, frozen or attached in the case. ED has also arrested 13 persons in this case while 74 entities have been arraigned as accused.
According to a statement by ED, the search resulted in the seizure of Rs 3.29 crore in cash. Securities/Bonds/DEMAT accounts worth more than Rs 573 crore were frozen during these raids and various incriminating documents and electronic records were seized.
“ED investigations have so far revealed that M/s Mahadev Online Book Betting App (which is an umbrella syndicate that arranged online platforms to enable illegal betting websites to enrol new users and create User IDs) has generated, derived and obtained huge amount of Proceeds of Crime (POC) and such POC was laundering through a complex web of benami bank accounts,” the statement claims.
These funds were being transferred out of India and later invested in the Indian stock market as foreign FPIs (which are based out of countries like Mauritius and Dubai). The funds were deployed/introduced in certain companies to cause ‘artificial price fluctuations’ of certain ‘SME sector securities’ so as to cheat common investors.
“Some of these investments have been identified and frozen during searches. Now, investigation is underway to uncover the complete modus operandi of these stock price manipulations. The seizures made during the searches have also revealed the role of ‘promoters of such listed entities’, who have deployed these tainted funds in their company under the guise of preferential issue of shares, sale of promoters/promoter-controlled shares & issue of share warrants. Some of these listed companies were also found to be used for layering the investment in share markets,” the ED claims.
During the searches, evidence has been recovered to suggest that the promoters of such companies collaborated/colluded with the accused persons to manipulate share prices of such companies with the help of ‘tainted money’ to raise valuation using a string of agents and middlemen. Some of these agents and stock brokers were also covered during the searches.
