ED investigating key role of a German man in its probe against MOB App

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has begun investigating the role of a German national in developing and programming the complex technical architecture of Mahadev Online Book, an illegal online betting and gaming platform

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has begun investigating the role of a German national in developing and programming the complex technical architecture of Mahadev Online Book, an illegal online betting and gaming platform. Sources familiar with the probe, which began in October 2022, say the German is likely a part of the brains trust of this $1 billion and upwards operation along with promoters Ravi Uppal and Sourabh Chandrakar.

ED investigating key role of a German man in its probe against MOB App

Sources say that some recent arrests revealed the German man, believed to be middle-aged, developed the core MOB platform’s betting structure. It was also revealed that he has structured several such similar online betting - gaming platforms in Mexico and certain South American countries. According to the ED, the MOB app is an umbrella syndicate that arranges online platforms to enable illegal betting websites to enrol new users, create user IDs and launder money through a layered web of benami bank accounts. So far, the agency has arrested 11 persons and named 19 persons in two of its preliminary charge sheet.

The agency is probing the connection of the German, whose name they refused to divulge, with the proceeds of crime generated by MoB and its 2000 franchisees. As per MOB’s franchisee model, the Dubai headquarter gets to keep 70% of the profits while the remaining 30% goes to the franchise holder. Each Monday, the panel operators and the subsidiary apps / sites under the expanding MOB umbrella network share their weekly accounts with the Dubai office, said sources close to the investigation. MOB branches allegedly made a profit of ₹30-40 lakh per branch per month until the crackdown by ED and the police of three states in India.

ED’s recent investigations also revealed the alleged involvement in hawala transactions of a Dubai resident, a certain Hari Shankar Tibrewal, one of the partners in MOB. Recent searches by ED across 17 locations across India, including Kolkata and Pune, allegedly belonging to Tibrewal, led to security holdings worth ₹580.7 crore being frozen. Tibrewal allegedly owned and operated an illegal betting website, skyexchange, and laundered the proceeds of crime through multiple companies operating in India and abroad.

ED sources said that a recently-arrested accused in the probe, Suraj Chokhani, allegedly ran firms which in turn were used by Tibrewal to launder proceeds of crime under the garb of share investments, the ED sources said. Chokhani ‘s alleged stake in a Bangladeshi gaming site--in which the sister of a Bangladeshi national cricket player is a co-partner-- and also in a Kathmandu casino are under the ED’s scanner. Another accused Girish Talreja, recently arrested by the ED, was an alleged stakeholder in a MOB subsidiary, Lotus365, along with Saurabh Chandrakar. Talreja was also part of the “cash handling WhatsApp Group” of MOB’s Pune franchise from where cash worth ₹1 crore was seized in the recent search. The Pune branch was allegedly handling betting cash of ₹50 crore a month.

As part of its inter-state investigation, the ED has so far seized/frozen movable assets worth ₹1,764.5 crore under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.