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ED raided 3 places for money laundering against Coda Payments India Pvt. Ltd and Garena Free Fire – An ongoing investigation is being conducted against Coda Payments India Pvt Ltd and Garena Free Fire mobile game. It pertains to money laundering under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
In accordance with this investigation, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided 3 premises of Coda Payments India Pvt Ltd and Sea Ltd’s Free Fire on Tuesday. The ED has also frozen all bank accounts of the parties. It is said that those contained a total of ₹68.53 crores.
Lately, multiple FIRs had been filed against the two entities. ED said, “It is alleged that Coda Payments India Pvt. Ltd. which facilitates and collects payments from end users (mostly unsuspecting children) of games like Garena Free Fire, Teen Patti Gold, Call of Duty, etc, in the name of monetizing and generating revenue for web and game publishers, is resorting to unauthorized deductions from the end users of these games.”
ED has conducted searches in 3 premises pertaining to M/s Coda Payments India Pvt Ltd in connection with an ongoing investigation under PMLA, 2002 against M/s Coda Payments India Pvt. Ltd and ‘Garena Free Fire’ mobile game & freezed bank account balance of Rs. 68.53 Crore.
— ED (@dir_ed) September 27, 2022
ED raided 3 places for money laundering against Coda Payments India Pvt. Ltd and Garena Free Fire, CHECK DETAILS
“They are doing this in the name of selling digital tokens to end users which are used by the end users to enhance their playing experience in the game.”
There have been allegations charged that the game developers like Garena and Coda Payments India Pvt Ltd have intentionally designed their payment interface so that after the first successful transaction, permission to make subsequent payments without any authentication can be easily given.
As children and youngsters do not read the technical terms clearly, they easily fall into these traps.
In its investigation, the ED also found that Coda Payments India Pvt. Ltd. has been collecting money in the name of sale of digital content and remitting it to its parent company in Singapore in the name of sale and purchase of digital content. But, the entire operations of Codashop are managed by Coda Singapore and not its Indian subsidiary. “It is only a conduit to remit funds outside India,” ED said.
“To prevent the company from alienating the Proceeds of Crime which it has collected through unauthorized deductions from the accounts of unsuspecting customers, a balance as of the date of ₹68.53 crores have been frozen under PMLA, 2002,” the agency further explained.\
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