ED files chargesheet over betting app scam linked to Chinese national

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet before a special PMLA court in Ahmedabad against the operators of a online betting and football app launched by a Chinese national, which allegedly cheated a number of persons, officials said on Friday.

The prosecution complaint was filed on Thursday in the case against 'Dani Data App', the central investigative agency said in a statement.

The operators of the app, apart from nine others, have been named as accused in the chargesheet filed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the statement said.

"The app launched by a Chinese national collected funds in the name of betting and playing football games on apps downloaded from Google Play Store and through WhatsApp referral groups.

"The gullible investors were lured by promising guaranteed return of 0.75 per cent per game, which was a false promise," the ED said.

The funds were collected, it said, through a number of merchant IDs opened with different payment aggregators such as AgreePay, BharatPe, Cashfree, Paytm, etc.

These funds were "routed" in bank accounts linked to the said merchant IDs between December 2021 and June 2022, the ED said.

The proceeds of crime worth hundreds of crores of rupees so generated were " laundered" through a "complex" web of innumerable transactions by moving the funds among a large number of mule (illegal) bank accounts opened in the name of dummy entities, the statement said.

These proceeds were ultimately "integrated" into the system by cash withdrawals, purchasing foreign currencies, converting them into crypto currency, and by siphoning off funds abroad, the agency said.

The ED had earlier frozen funds worth about Rs 20 crore during searches it conducted in the case.

The money laundering case stems from an FIR filed by the cybercrime police station in Banaskantha, Gujarat.