In mobile apps payments fraud case ED attaches funds worth over Rs 40 Crore

In mobile apps payments fraud case ED attaches funds worth over Rs 40 Crore The Enforcement Directorate (ED) announced on Wednesday that it had frozen monies worth Rs 40.64 crore as part of a money-laundering investigation into a case of naive depositors being duped by fraudulent mobile phone apps linked to payment gateways. The connected funds are in the form of bank deposits and an amount kept with payment solutions providers, according to the terms of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), it stated. The identity of a businessman accused in the alleged cheating scheme, as well as the payment gateways involved, was not revealed by the federal investigation agency. The ED stated in a statement that their case is based on a June 1 FIR filed by the Bengaluru Police's cyber crime cell. "The accused entities allegedly enticed the public to invest using Powerbank and Sunfactory programmes (on mobile phones) by promising to remit interest on a daily or weekly basis," according to the police FIR. "After collecting a large sum of money from the unsuspecting public, the accused firms stopped their alleged business," the agency stated. The accused "never paid interest nor repaid the principal amount" to the investors and withheld their funds via these "fraudulent" mobile applications, according to the complaint. The accused entities "received investment of over Rs 300 crore by setting up a merchant account on behalf of a seemingly legitimate business and obtaining payment solutions from payment gateways and payment solutions businesses," according to the ED probe. The accused businesses, according to the agency, "deviated" from their declared line of business and collected money from the public by promoting "untenable" investment plans through Google Playstore mobile apps. "The funds were settled into the accused entities' bank accounts after being collected from the public in the name of investment through criminal payment aggregator services," it stated.