On Wednesday, 24th May, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids across various states, against foreign-registered online gaming portals, and said that it detected illegal foreign remittances worth around 4000 crore rupees, allegedly violating the Foreign Exchange Law. Releasing a statement, the central investigating agency said, “19.55 lakh rupees and more than US$ 22, 600 in cash were seized, from freezing 55 bank accounts, during the raids, which were carried out under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA)”.
The raids were carried out on 22nd and 23rd May, across 25 different locations, in the states of Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh. The raids helped the ED find out that these online gaming portals were registered in small island countries like Malta, Cyprus, and Curacao, while functioning in India. The ED said further said that all of these companies and websites are linked to Indian banks with accounts opened in the name of proxy persons, who have no connection with online gaming activity.
These companies and websites were involved in remitting the amount collected from the public, out of India, after routing it through multiple bank accounts. The purpose of the remittances was mis-declared against import of goods and services.
