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Paytm, Razorpay, Six Other Payment Gateways In ED Crosshairs for Rs 500 Cr Crypto Scam

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has started an investigation into nine payment gateways, including Razorpay, PayU and Paytm, freezing Rs 500 crore in their virtual accounts, according to the media report.

By Jitendra Das
New Update
Paytm, Razorpay, Six Other Payment Gateways In ED Crosshairs for Rs 500 Cr Crypto Scam

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has started an investigation into nine payment gateways, including Razorpay, PayU and Paytm, freezing Rs 500 crore in their virtual accounts, according to the media report.
 
The investigation is related to a cryptocurrency scam, HPZ Token, which is said to have been run by 10 Chinese nationals from India.

The accused are said to have scammed customers out of Rs 2,200 crore across 20 states in India and transferred the money abroad. A part of this was frozen with the payment gateways. People were given option to invest in cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, through the HPZ Token app.

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The government agency is investigating whether the payment gateways flagged these suspicious transactions and alerted the central bank and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

According to the report, PayU had the largest share, with Rs 130 crore out of the Rs 500 crore, followed by Easebuzz with Rs 33.4 crore, Razorpay with Rs 18 crore, and Paytm with Rs 2.8 crore.

The ED is checking if the payment gateways reported Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) and alerted the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Financial Intelligence Unit.

All financial institutions must regularly file STRs, which the RBI sends to the Financial Intelligence Unit for further investigation.

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