ED freezes Rs 110 cr, targets Parimatch’s surrogate entities in crackdown on illegal betting

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen Rs 110 crore in mule bank accounts and seized 1,200 mule credit cards in a nationwide crackdown on the Indian operations of Cyprus-based online betting platform Parimatch. 

The agency’s raids, conducted on August 12 across 17 locations in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Surat, Madurai, and Kanpur, targeted entities linked to Parimatch, including its surrogate operations under the names “Parimatch Sports” and “Parimatch News,” which allegedly facilitated money laundering and deceived investors.

The investigation, initiated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) following a Mumbai Police FIR against parimatch.com for defrauding users, revealed that Parimatch generated over Rs 3,000 crore annually through aggressive marketing tactics, including sports tournament sponsorships and celebrity endorsements. 

The ED alleges that the platform lured investors with promises of high returns, only to siphon funds through a complex network of mule accounts and cryptocurrency transactions.

According to the ED, Parimatch’s Indian entities, operating under the guise of legitimate businesses like “Parimatch Sports” and “Parimatch News,” received payments via foreign remittances to run surrogate advertisements that masked the platform’s illegal betting activities. 

The agency uncovered a sophisticated money-laundering scheme involving mule accounts—bank accounts used to obscure illicit funds. In Tamil Nadu, funds deposited into these accounts were withdrawn as cash and handed to hawala operators, who used them to recharge virtual wallets of a UK-based company. These wallets then purchased cryptocurrency via mule crypto accounts controlled by Parimatch agents.

In western India, Parimatch engaged domestic money transfer (DMT) agents to collect funds in mule accounts, which were then transferred to Parimatch agents via payments from the seized mule credit cards, 1,200 of which were found at a single location during the raids. 

The ED also discovered that payment companies, previously denied payment aggregator licenses by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), provided their APIs to Parimatch agents under the pretense of being technology service providers (TSPs). These APIs enabled fund collection through mule accounts disguised as e-commerce or payment solution companies, with money later “layered” through fake refunds, chargebacks, and vendor payments to conceal its origins.

The raids resulted in the seizure of incriminating documents and digital devices, shedding light on Parimatch’s alleged modus operandi. 

The ED’s crackdown is part of a broader effort to curb illegal online betting in India, with other platforms like 1xBet, FairPlay, and Lotus365 also under scrutiny. 

The agency has summoned celebrities, including cricketers Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, and Suresh Raina, and actors Sonu Sood and Urvashi Rautela, for endorsing such platforms, raising questions about influencer accountability. 

The investigation has also drawn attention to misleading advertisements, often featuring QR codes redirecting users to betting sites disguised as sports merchandise brands.

This action follows other high-profile ED probes, such as the freezing of Rs 284 crore in assets linked to Haryana-based Probo Media Technologies and Rs 1,100 crore in shares tied to the Mahadev betting app.