BENGALURU: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Bengaluru Zonal Office, on Thursday issued a Provisional Attachment Order (PAO) in the illegal online betting and gambling activities case involving Congress MLA KC Veerendra and his associates, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA).
Under PAO, assets worth around Rs 177.3 crore have been provisionally attached. These include immovable properties from agricultural land to residential sites along with other movable assets derived directly from the proceeds of crime (PoC) generated out of illegal online betting/gambling operations, according to a press release issued here on Thursday.
ED launched an investigation on the basis of multiple FIRs registered in several states under various Sections of IPC, which are scheduled offences under PMLA.
“The FIRs pertain to cheating, impersonation and extortion of the general public through illegal online betting websites, including ‘King567’ and other associated platforms. Subsequent findings have uncovered that Veerendra and his associates are behind a nationwide illegal online betting network,” the ED said.
“The investigation has established that the accused generated substantial PoC by duping the public through online betting and impersonation scams. In the scheme, unsuspecting players were induced to stake money on rigged illegal gaming websites, which were in the nature of online casinos. Their deposits (running into crores of rupees in aggregate) were collected via payment gateways into designated payment aggregator accounts.
The victims were initially shown fake winnings to build trust, and then eventually blocked from withdrawals. Investigation has revealed use of hundreds of mule accounts and several payment gateways for laundering of proceeds of crime,” the ED said.
Earlier, the agency conducted extensive search and seizure operations at more than 60 premises in several states under Section 17 of PMLA. Large quantities of cash, gold bullion, gold and silver jewellery, vehicles, digital devices and incriminating documents were seized.
ED officers had arrested Veerendra under Section 19 of PMLA. A prosecution complaint was filed before the Special PMLA Court.
“On the basis of material evidence gathered during investigation, ED has provisionally attached assets held directly and indirectly by Veerendra, which are reasonably believed to be PoC and properties involved in money laundering. With this, the ED has attached assets worth more than Rs 320 crore in the present case under PMLA.
Further, during the course of investigation, PoC exceeding Rs 2,300 crore have been identified so far, which were generated through illegal online betting and gambling activities and subsequently laundered through multiple layers of transactions,” the ED said.