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Razorpay Refutes Claims Of Scrutiny By ED Over Alleged Crypto Scam

The scam is believed to have involved bulk payments, and the money was held in the gateways for one or two days before being remitted to beneficiaries. ED has already filed charges implicating 298 individuals in the scam.

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Razorpay Refutes Claims Of Scrutiny By ED Over Alleged Crypto Scam


Chinese nationals are allegedly behind one of the largest cryptocurrency scams in India, having collected over Rs 2,200 crore from people across 20 states. The scam involved a mobile app called HPZ Token, through which individuals were offered the opportunity to invest in cryptocurrency mining, including bitcoins. The funds were then transferred abroad, with part of the proceeds being frozen in virtual accounts linked to major payment gateways, including Paytm, Razorpay, PayU, and Easebuzz, over the past two years.

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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating the case and has frozen approximately Rs 500 crore from these payment gateways. The scam is believed to have involved bulk payments, and the money was held in the gateways for one or two days before being remitted to beneficiaries. ED has already filed charges implicating 298 individuals in the scam.

On January 22, a PMLA court in Nagaland declared Bhupesh Arora, a Delhi resident, a fugitive economic offender after he failed to appear before the agency. The ED is currently tracing the money trail and assessing whether the payment gateways had flagged any suspicious transactions to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which would have been passed on to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for further investigation.

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PayU had the largest amount frozen, with Rs 130 crore linked to the scam, followed by Easebuzz with Rs 33.4 crore, Razorpay with Rs 18 crore, CashFree with Rs 10.6 crore, and Paytm with Rs 2.8 crore. Other payment gateways under scrutiny include WunderBaked, AgreePay, and SpeedPay.

The report also reveals that over 50 companies were registered in Delhi, along with various firms in other states like Karnataka, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and West Bengal. These companies were connected to numerous bank accounts, further complicating the investigation.

However, as the Enforcement Directorate continues its raid, Razorpay has officially issued a statement to deter the ongoing controversy.

‘The recent news reports suggesting Razorpay is under scrutiny by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are factually inaccurate and misleading. We have not received any new notices, communications, or inquiries from the ED related to the issues referenced in these articles. Furthermore, we were not approached by the media for comment before the publication of these reports.”

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Crypto Scam

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