freeze

The assets have been frozen under the anti-money laundering law. The pursuits were sent off on September 14 at various premises of the denounced in Delhi, Mumbai, Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Gaya

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it has frozen funds worth Rs 46.67 crore kept in with Easebuzz, Razorpay, Cashfree and Paytm. The ED carried raids this week against these Chinese-controlled payment apps and investment tokens. The assets have been frozen under the anti-money laundering law. The pursuits were sent off on September 14 at various premises of the denounced in Delhi, Mumbai, Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Gaya.

16 premises of banks and payment passages in Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Bengaluru in regard of an examination connected with an application based token named HPZ and related substances were likewise covered, the government organisation said in an explanation. The tax evasion case originates from an October, 2021 FIR recorded by the cyber crime unit of Kohima Police in Nagaland, it said.

However Cashfree Payments’ spokesperson said, “We continue to extend our diligent co-operation to the ED operations. We were able to provide the required and necessary information within a few hours on the day of enquiry. The operations and on-boarding processes of Cashfree Payments are fully compliant with existing regulations.”

While EaseBuzz spokesperson said, “We, at Easebuzz, would like to clarify that none of the parties mentioned in the ED’s statement belonged to our merchant base. The mentioned entities by authorities were only the counterparties of the merchant, who was using our payment gateway and this merchant had been proactively identified and blocked by us much before the investigation had started, as per our internal risk and compliance process. We intend to fully co-operate with the investigation authorities, as we are committed to ensure that our business operations comply with the existing regulations.”