Authorities in India have frozen millions in funds in mule bank accounts and seized 1,200 credit cards as it goes after ‘illegal’ online betting platform Parimatch.
According to reports, the Cyprus-based operation operated surrogate advertisement channels as part of an ‘aggressive’ marketing campaign which included sponsorship of sports tournaments and partnerships with celebrities.
Authorities believe the company lured in investors and routed their funds through mule accounts, later withdrawing them in Tamil Nadu and using these to recharge virtual wallets in a UK-based company.
Authorities conducted searches at 17 locations, including Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur and Hyderabad, seizing cash, documents and digital devices.
Authorities say that payment companies would cloak themselves as technology service providers, offering their application programming interface to Parimatch to help in collecting user funds. The funds were layered and transferred out, disguised as e-commerce refunds, chargebacks, vendor payments and in other forms in order to conceal the purpose of the funds.
Parimatch runs advertising sites such as ParimatchSports and Parimatch News.
