BENGALURU: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Bengaluru Zonal Office, has seized 40kg gold (24 carat gold bullion) worth Rs 50.33 crore during search operations on October 9 in the illegal online betting scam.
The gold was seized from two lockers in Challakere, stated the ED in an official release on Thursday. Earlier, ED had seized assets worth Rs 103 crore in the form of around 21kg gold bars, cash, gold and silver jewellery, bank accounts and high-end vehicles.
“Total seizure in the case is more than Rs 150 crore till date. The said searches and tracing of Proceeds of Crime in an illegal online betting case, have been undertaken during the judicial custody of prime accused Chitradurga MLA Veerendra,” added ED.
“The probe revealed Veerendra in association with other friends and family members is involved in operations of many illegal online betting websites - King567, Raja567 etc and cheating innocent players through the same. The funds collection from players has been routed using several gateways like FonePaisa etc. The money so collected is routed through several mule accounts which are sourced by these betting operators from intermediaries from all across India,"
"ED investigation has revealed a nexus of online betting apps with isolated instances of cybercrime across India, by way of mule accounts creation in the name of individuals in exchange for petty sums. The estimated turnover of these betting applications being controlled by Veerendra is more than Rs 2000 crore,” ED added.
The ED said investigation revealed that Veerendra, his family members and associates booked international travel tickets, visa and other hospitality services worth crores of rupees, financed through a network of mule accounts linked to proceeds from online betting websites.
“Expenses like marketing, bulk SMS services, platform hosting, Search Engine Optimisation etc with respect to operations of these mule accounts are also paid through these accounts controlled by Veerendra and his associates. The evidence suggests that the funds used for these transactions were diverted from illicit online activities and funnelled through multiple intermediary accounts to obscure their origin,” added the ED.
