NEW DELHI, Dec 17: The Enforcement Directorate Tuesday said it has conducted fresh searches against the operatives of a betting website, owned by some Pakistani nationals, that also was involved in “illegal” broadcast of Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup matches.
The searches were undertaken by the federal agency between December 10-12 in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune in the case against the portal named ‘Maginwin’.
The ED’s case, filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), is based on an FIR registered by the cyber crime unit of the Ahmedabad Police in Gujarat.
Related Posts:
Bank deposits worth Rs 30 lakh were frozen during the raids apart from seizure of “incriminating” documents, the ED said in a statement.
Magicwin, according to the agency, is a “betting” website “guised” as a gaming portal which is “actually owned” by Pakistani nationals. The operations of this website are mostly handled by Indian nationals working or settled in Dubai, it said.
“The betting games being shown on the website are originally played in the Philippines and other countries which allow betting activities,” it said.
However, as per the investigation, the same is “re-telecast” on Magicwin’s website by copying the APIs (application programming interface) of the original games.
The agency said betting activities llike deposits, placing of betting and withdrawal are “controlled” by the “owners” of Magicwin.
The ED claimed its probe found that that the money, deposited in the bank accounts by the players/betters, was “diverted” through layers of “shell and mule” bank accounts and further the profit part of the owners were invested in crypto assets, withdrawn in cash or sent to Dubai through Hawala channels.
The winning amounts of the players/betters were transferred to their bank accounts through merchant accounts of various shell companies maintained with payment gateways.These amounts were also transferred to the player’s bank account though domestic money transfer (DMT), it said.
A “launch party” for the portal, where several “B-town celebrities” attended and endorsed Magicwin, is also under the scanner of the agency.
These celebrities also did video and photo-shoots for Magicwin and posted i t on their social media accounts for its “promotion”. Advertisements were also done through hoardings out of home (OOH) in various parts of India including Gujarat and Maharashtra, the ED found.
The profits generated by these betting websites is more than 50 per cent of the total deposits made by the players, it said.
The agency said it has conducted as many as 68 searches in this case till now and has seized funds and assets worth a total Rs 3.55 crore. (PTI)
