What’s the news? The Enforcement Directorate (ED) detected and seized Rs 46.67 crore during ‘search operations’ while investigating the app-based token HPZ and related entities under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, on 14th September. The website of HPZ, which has now been taken down, promised huge returns to users for investing in mining machines for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. During the search, “various incriminating documents have been recovered and seized. Huge balances were found to be maintained in the virtual accounts of the involved entities with payment aggregators”, the ED said. Rs 33.36 crore was found with Easebuzz Private Limited in Pune, Rs 8.21 crore with Razorpay Software Private Limited in Bangalore, Rs 1.28 crore with Cashfree Payments India Private Limited in Bangalore and Rs. 1.11 crore with Paytm Payments Services Limited in New Delhi. A total amount of Rs 46.67 crore was freezed in various bank and virtual accounts, according to ED’s press release. In all, the ED carried out search operations at “6 business and residential premises in Delhi, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Lucknow, Gaya and 16 other premises of Banks/Payment Gateways branches/offices in Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Bangalore.” Why it matters: This seems like a continuation of ED’s crackdown on China-linked apps which use exploitative practices against its users. Medianama had reported that ED had previously conducted raids on the premises of Razorpay, Cashfree and Paytm, while investigating loan apps with links to China. There are many such apps with unethical…
