NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is preparing to soon attach assets worth crores of rupees belonging to certain sportspersons and actors under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as part of its probe into a case linked to an online betting and gaming platform.
Officials said the agency, in its investigation into the case related to the online betting app ‘1xBet’, has found that some of these celebrities utilised the endorsement fee paid to them for acquiring a variety of assets, which qualified as the “proceeds of crime” under the PMLA.
They said that an attachment order under the provisions of the PMLA would soon be issued to seize the identified movable and immovable properties, including some located abroad in countries like the UAE.
According to officials, investigators are currently in the process of quantifying and valuing the assets. “The properties acquired or created from the funds generated from the proceeds of crime are attached so that the persons who indulged in crime are not able to enjoy the fruits of such a criminal act,” they said.
After issuing the attachment order, it will be sent to the Adjudicating Authority under the PMLA for confirmation and, once approved, a charge sheet would be filed in a designated court for confiscating these assets, the officials noted.
The ED, over the last few weeks, questioned cricketers like Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Robin Uthappa and Shikhar Dhawan, apart from actors Sonu Sood, Mimi Chakraborty (a former TMC MP) and Ankush Hazra (Bengali cinema), as part of this investigation. Some online influencers were also questioned. The agency recorded the statements of these celebrities under Section 50 of the PMLA.
Sources in the agency said a number of them furnished the statement of accounts and transactions, through which they received their endorsement fee from the online platform, to the investigating officer of the case. Statements of a few more sportspersons and actors are to be recorded by the agency in this case, they added.
Actor Urvashi Rautela, the “India ambassador for 1xBet”, was summoned, but she did not depose as she was stated to be abroad, the sources said.
According to Curacao-registered 1xBet, it is a globally recognised bookmaker with 18 years in the betting industry. Customers can place bets on thousands of sporting events, with the company’s website and app available in 70 languages, according to the company information available on its official website.
The Union government recently banned real money online gaming in India by bringing in legislation. According to estimates by market analysis firms and probe agencies undertaken before the government ban, there were about 22 crore Indian users of various such online betting apps, out of which half were regular users.