ED Raids: Paytm clarifies THIS - Read Full Text | Statement

Digital financial services firm One97 Communications, which operates under the Paytm brand, on Sunday denied any link with the merchants that are under the Enforcement Directorate scanner in the Chinese loan app case. Paytm said that none of the funds frozen by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) belongs to it or any of its group firms.

The ED on Saturday said it has conducted raids at six premises of online payment gateways, such as Razorpay, Paytm and Cashfree in Bengaluru, over the alleged irregularities in instant app-based loans "controlled" by Chinese persons. The federal probe agency also said that during the raids, it seized Rs 17 crore worth of funds kept in "merchant IDs and bank accounts of these Chinese persons-controlled entities".
 
"As a part of ongoing investigations on a specific set of merchants, the ED has sought information regarding such merchants to whom we provide payment processing solutions. We wish to clarify that these merchants are independent entities, and none of them are our group entities," Paytm said in a regulatory filing.

What Paytm clarified - Read Full Text | Statement 

"Our statement on ED Investigation: Merchants under scrutiny are not Paytm entities, seized funds do not belong to the company"

"This is with respect to the press release issued on 3rd September 2022 by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) regarding the search operations it carried out at 6 premises in Bengaluru.

We have filed an update with the exchanges, accessible here: – https://www.bseindia.com/xml-data/corpfiling/AttachLive/592dbc30-e4da-48...

As a part of ongoing investigations on a specific set of merchants, the ED has sought information regarding such merchants to whom we provide payment processing solutions. We wish to clarify that these merchants are independent entities, and none of them are our group entities.

It may be noted that ED has instructed us to freeze certain amounts from the Merchant IDs (MIDs) of a specific set of merchant entities (as mentioned by the ED in their press release). It may be further noted that none of the funds which have been instructed to be frozen belong to Paytm or any of our group companies.

We are, and will continue to, fully cooperate with the authorities, and all the directive actions are being duly complied with."