ED seizes assets worth ₹2.11 crore, freezes bank funds of ₹37 crore, in ‘Parimatch’ probe

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate’s Mumbai unit on Wednesday seized movable assets worth ₹2

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate’s Mumbai unit on Wednesday seized movable assets worth ₹2.11 crore and froze bank funds worth ₹37 crore as part of its money-laundering investigation into the Cyprus-based illegal online betting platform Parimatch and associated entities. The searches were conducted at 17 locations including Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi and UP.

Apart from gold bars and cash, multiple incriminating documents and digital devices were also seized, ED officials said. The ED has so far frozen/seized assets worth approximately ₹150 crore in the case. Parimatch is accused of generating around ₹3,000 crore from Indian users in a year.

The agency initiated its investigation based on an FIR registered by the cyber police station, Mumbai. Its investigation revealed an alleged multi-layered mechanism for routing and laundering the proceeds generated through Parimatch. According to ED officials, the betting proceeds were initially routed through multiple mule bank accounts, including accounts on-boarded as merchant accounts, and thereafter layered through legitimate financial and commercial channels.

The probe revealed that Cash Management System (CMS) and Domestic Money Transfer (DMT) agents were utilised for layering the betting proceeds. Funds received in merchant or mule accounts were allegedly routed to CMS and DMT-linked accounts, where banking funds substituted the legitimate cash collection cycle, while equivalent physical cash was made available to persons associated with Parimatch. The cash was thereafter allegedly converted into USDT, a type of crypto currency, through hawala or crypto operators and transferred to crypto wallets controlled by the offshore Parimatch network.

“Funds were also routed through payment intermediaries into the bank accounts of Indian tour-and-travel operators without a corresponding provision of services,” said an ED official. These were used to settle amounts purportedly payable to travel operators by their overseas clients while corresponding amounts were collected from such clients in physical cash allegedly by Parimatch handlers outside India. Transactions of at least ₹200 crore were allegedly routed through two such tour-and-travel operators.

A parallel mechanism involving sham Overseas Direct Investments (ODI) transactions and bogus imports of services was also identified, through which betting proceeds worth ₹500 crore were layered and remitted abroad. The remittances were allegedly supported by sham valuation reports for ODI and fictitious documentation despite the underlying transactions lacking genuine commercial substance.

“Thus, the investigation has uncovered a complex network of mule and merchant accounts, CMS and DMT agents, tour and travel operators, domestic entities, offshore investment structures, hawala operators and crypto channels, utilised to layer, disguise and transfer proceeds generated through the illegal online betting operations,” the ED official said.