ED Freezes ₹110 Crore in Crackdown on Illegal Betting Platform

Major Action Against Online Betting Fraud

Mumbai, Aug 14: In a significant operation across multiple cities, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen ₹110 crore linked to a Cyprus-based illegal online betting site, as part of a larger ₹3,000 crore fraud investigation, an official reported on Thursday.

Among the platform's brand ambassadors were cricket players Sunil Narine and Nicholas Pooran, alongside a Bollywood actress and an Indian rap artist.

The ED's inquiry was prompted by a First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Cyber Police Station in Mumbai, which accused Parimatch.com of deceiving investors by promising high returns, amassing over ₹3,000 crore within a year.

Investigations revealed that payment companies, whose applications for Payment Aggregator licenses were denied by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), provided services to Parimatch disguised as technology service providers (TSPs), facilitating user fund collections through their API (Application Programming Interface), according to an ED statement.

During the extensive searches, the ED's Mumbai Zonal Office confiscated incriminating documents and digital devices from 17 locations across Mumbai, Delhi, Noida, Jaipur, Surat, Madurai, Kanpur, and Hyderabad on Tuesday, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

The investigation into Parimatch indicated that the platform gained traction through aggressive marketing strategies, including sponsorship of sports events and collaborations with prominent celebrities.

The ED noted that the platform established Indian entities to conduct surrogate advertisements under the names "Parimatch Sports" and "Parimatch News," with payments made through foreign inward remittances.

Searches uncovered that Parimatch funneled user funds through mule accounts using various tactics nationwide.

In one instance, user deposits into mule accounts were withdrawn in cash in a specific area of Tamil Nadu, which was then handed over to hawala operators to recharge virtual wallets of a UK-based firm.

These wallets were subsequently utilized to purchase USDT cryptocurrency in the names of mule crypto accounts managed by Parimatch agents.