The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Wednesday conducted searches at 19 locations in Mumbai and Pune as part of the ongoing probe against Fairplay, an online betting platform. According to the ED, Fairplay was involved in “unauthorised” streaming of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 matches on the Fairplay App and various online betting activities including results of Lok Sabha polls. It is suspected that Fairplay is a subsidiary of Mahadev online betting app, which is already under the law enforcement agency’s scanner for various other irregularities. During the course of search operations, movable assets like cash, bank funds, demat account holdings and luxury watches to the tune of Rs 8 crore were seized/frozen, and various other incriminating documents and digital devices were also seized. ED’s crackdown on the betting platform company came after the registration of an PMLA case against the accused company. The said PMLA case is based on the FIR registered by Maharashtra Nodal Cyber Police, Mumbai on the complaint Viacom 18 network under various section of of IPC, 1860, Information Technology Act, 2000 and Copyright Act, 1957 for causing loss of revenue of more than Rs 100 crore (proceeds of crime). The cyber police last year had summoned some Bollywood celebrities in connection with the case’s investigation. The investigation by the anti-money laundering agency has revealed that Fairplay made agreements through entities in Dubai and Curacao with Indian agencies representing celebrities. “It was found that no due diligence was performed by Indian agencies regarding Fairplay before executing the agreements for its promotion,” ED states on Thursday. The agency may also summon for inquiry some Bollywood celebrities who were allegedly linked to Fairplay for its promotion mainly during IPL 2023. Investigation conducted till date revealed that Fairplay collected funds through various bogus/shell bank accounts which in turn were layered through complex web of bank accounts of shell entities and were then accumulated in Pharma companies involved in bogus billing, the agency stated. Investigation further revealed that funds from these companies have been siphoned off to overseas shell entities based out of Hong Kong SAR, China and Dubai. More than 400 bank accounts of shell entities were found to be used for these purposes which are under examination along with trailing/utilisation of funds collected from the public by Fairplay, the central agency said.
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