Chinese nationals in ED custody over online betting, accused floated websites to lure gullible persons

New Delhi: The PMLA Special Court, Hyderabad granted 8 days of ED Custody from 22nd Sep to 29th Sep, 2020 of Chinese national Yan Hao S/o Yan Hongge and of Dhiraj Sarkar and Ankit Kapoor. These accused persons were arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) on 15.09.2020 in connection with the money laundering case relating to the online betting APPs run by Chinese nationals.

ED initiated investigation under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) on the basis of FIRs lodged by Cyber Crime Station (CCS) of Hyderabad Police under sections 420 and 120B of IPC, Sec 3(1)(i) of Telangana State Gambling Act 2017, Prize Chits & Money Circulation Scheme Act against M/s Dokypay Technology Private Limited and M/s LinkyunTechnolgy Private Limited and others involved in online betting scam.

Accused floated large number of websites to attract gullible persons to become members and to place bets on various online APPs which promised attractive rewards on simple games of chance. Paytm and Cashfree were used to collect money and pay commission to all these agent members. Hundreds of websites were created to promote online betting under the garb of e-commerce.

Earlier, searches were conducted by the Directorate at 15 locations in Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai and Pune which resulted in seizure of 17 Hard disks, 5 laptops, phones and crucial incriminating documents. ED has also frozen Rs 46.96 Crore held in 4 Accounts in HSBC Bank.

Investigation under PMLA to identify the major beneficiaries of the Payouts from Paytm and HSBC Bank Accounts is under progress. Summons have been issued to various persons including the Chinese nationals who are the directors of the company. It is suspected that these websites were also acted as payment aggregators for multiple APPs which were banned by Google Play Store for lax technical security, data theft or betting activities.

These accused companies were also planning to set up a NBFC for micro credits but their license was declined by regulatory authorities. The quantum of fraud may be more than Rs 1000 Crore. The custodial interrogation of these 3 accused is underway to unearth the entire scam.