New Delhi, Dec 15 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said it has seized over Rs 51 crore lying in the bank accounts and virtual accounts of PC Financial Service Private Limited -- a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC), under the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
With this, the total seizure in this case has reached Rs 288 crore.
The ED had lodged a case against NBFC and Fintech companies. These companies used to provide micro loans to the common people through mobile app. It was found that they allegedly extorted high rare of interest by using the personal data of the customers illegally.
The victims allegedly received threat calls from these companies. An ED official said that the companies were running call centre through which they would call and harass the victim to get money.
Initially, a case of money laundering was lodged. Later, during the course of investigation the ED also initiated investigation under FEMA against PC Financial Services Private Limited (PCFS).
An ED official said that PCFS used to provide micro loans to the customers through Cashbean, a mobile app for suspicious foreign outward remittances.
"PCFS is a wholly owned subsidiary (WOS) of Oplay Digital Services, SA de CV, Mexico, which is inturn a WOS of Ms TenspotPesa Limited, Hong Kong which is owned by Ms Opera Limited (Cayman Islands) and Ms Wisdom Connection I Holding Inc (Cayman Islands), which are ultimately beneficially owned by Chinese National Zhou Yahui," said an ED official.
The original Indian Company PCFS was incorporated in 1995 by Indian nationals and got NBFC license in 2002 and after RBI approval in 2018, the ownership moved to the Chinese controlled company.
Investigation further revealed that the foreign parent companies of PCFS brought in FDI worth Rs 173 Crore for lending business and within a short span of time, made foreign outward remittances worth Rs 429.29 crore in the name of payments for software services received from related foreign companies.
Based on the ED investigation, the RBI and the IT Department have also initiated enquiry against the said NBFC.