Payments gateway providers say funds seized by ED didn't belong to them
A few hours after the ED statement that it has frozen around Rs 46.67 cr from merchants IDs of different payment gateways in connection with a PMLA case pertaining to Chinese loan apps, Paytm said that a certain amount was frozen by them on the instructions of the ED.
IANS
Sep 16, 2022 07:28
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New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) A few hours after the ED statement that it has frozen around Rs 46.67 cr from merchants IDs of different payment gateways in connection with a PMLA case pertaining to Chinese loan apps, Paytm said that a certain amount was frozen by them on the instructions of the ED.
"ED instructed us to freeze certain amount from MIDs of specific merchant entities and none of these funds belong to Paytm or our group companies," Paytm said.
The Enforcement Directorate said that around Rs 46.67 crore was detected and frozen in various bank and virtual accounts.
The federal anti money laundering agency said Rs 33.36 crore was found with Easebuzz Private Limited, Pune, Rs 8.21 crore with Razorpay Software Private Limited, Bengaluru, Rs 1.28 crore with Cashfree Payments India Private Limited, Bengaluru and Rs 1.11 cr with Paytm Payments Services Limited, New Delhi.
Cashfree Payments said that they extended diligent co-operation to the ED operations and were able to provide the required information within a few hours on the day of enquiry.
"The operations and on-boarding processes of Cashfree Payments are fully compliant with existing regulations," a Cashfree Payments' spokesperson said.
Easehuzz said that none of the parties mentioned in the ED's statement belonged to their merchant base.
"The mentioned entities by authorities were only the counterparties of the merchant, who was using our payment gateway and this merchant had been proactively identified and blocked by us much before the investigation had started, as per our internal risk and compliance process," an Easebuzz spokesperson said.
It said that they intend to fully co-operate with the authorities to ensure that their business operations comply with the existing regulations.
Razorpay said that none of the funds which were directed to be frozen by the ED belong to them.
"We proactively blocked all those suspicious entities and funds associated with them, and have shared their details with authorities. None of the funds which have been directed to be frozen by the authorities belong to Razorpay. We would like to reiterate that all our operations and on-boarding processes adhere to the highest standards of governance & regulatory guidelines," said a Razorpay spokesperson.
