The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday raided the residential premises of a couple running an adult webcam streaming studio in Uttar Pradesh's Noida.
The couple, who allegedly shot adult videos of models over a webcam at their residence, supplied those videos to a Cyprus-based company known for hosting international pornographic sites, PTI reported, citing sources.
The central probe agency also recorded the statement of some models, who worked for the couple and featured in the alleged videos. The raids were undertaken by the ED under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
According to the report, the agency is conducting an investigation against a company named Subdigi Ventures Private Limited. The company is owned by the couple, who are based in Noida. They allegedly ran an adult webcam streaming studio from their residence for a Cyprus-based company namely Technius Limited, the report added.
Technius Limited runs the likes of porn website Xhamster and adult webcam website Stripchat.
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The allegations against the couple
According to the sources quoted by the news agency PTI, the couple used to receive "foreign remittance" in their bank accounts by "wrongly" giving the purpose code to the banks as advertising, market research, and public opinion polling services.
{{/usCountry}}According to the sources quoted by the news agency PTI, the couple used to receive "foreign remittance" in their bank accounts by "wrongly" giving the purpose code to the banks as advertising, market research, and public opinion polling services.
{{/usCountry}}The agency identified an amount of ₹15.66 crore in the bank accounts of Subdigi Ventures Private Limited and its directors till now.
The couple hired models for the work using advertisements on social media, according to the report. As far as paying the models is concerned, they reportedly gave 25 percent of the total income generated by the model back to them. The rest of the 75 percent went into the couple’s pockets.
Stripchat is an adult webcam website that charges tokens from the user to interact with the model. Essentially, the users pay the model in the form of these tokens to put their demands on it.