THE ENFORCEMENT DIRECTORATE has frozen ₹526-crore bank deposits and seized gold jewellery worth ₹3.5cr, along with ₹11 lakh in cash, after it concluded searches in a money laundering case against online gaming platform Gameskraft and its founders, PTI quotes ED officials as stating Thursday.
The ED operations were conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The searches against the Bengaluru-based company were launched on May 7 simultaneously in Delhi-NCR and Karnataka’s capital. The raids concluded on May 13. When the raids were launched, the ED had arrested the company’s three founders – Deepak Singh, Prithvi Raj Singh and Vikas Taneja.
Gameskraft Technologies Pvt Ltd hosts rummy games and tournaments, and a real money game (RMG) through its mobile applications like ‘RummyCulture’, ‘RummyPrime’, ‘Playship’ and ‘RummyTime’, and a business-to-business mobile application named ‘RummyCorner’.
The total domestic user base of the company is around 30 million and the probe finds that a large user base came from states like Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
The company charged a percentage on the stake/wagering amounts of the users in the form of commission (ranging between 10-15%), said the agency.
THE ED contends that gullible users incurred a total financial loss of ₹1,154cr and mental agony due to the usage of BOTs.
The agency had alleged the same BOT modus operandi when it probed another real money gaming app WinZO some time back, PTI reports.
The ED alleged that the “manipulative” gaming structure of Gameskraft caused “severe” financial distress to users (especially those from a poor financial background), and that some users reportedly experienced extreme mental distress and also suicidal tendencies.
It added that the company and its directors laundered the alleged illicitly earned money by investment in foreign entities, dividend payment to its shareholders, mutual funds, bonds and investment in movable and immovable properties.
Online money gaming was banned by the government last August.
