Enforcement Directorate (Ed), therefore, recently Kudos Finance & Investments Private Limited, Acemoney (India) Limited, Rhino Finance Private Limited and Pioneer Financial and Management Services Private Limited have total funds of Rs 86.65 crore lying in 155 bank and payment gateway accounts of NBFCs. is attached. and their linked fintech companies.
A provisional order was issued under the criminal sections of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to complete the annexures, it said.
“ED is conducting money laundering probe against several people NBFC Companies that are in the business of instant personal micro loans.
“It was found that various fintech (financial technology) companies backed by Chinese funds have entered into agreements with these NBFC companies to provide instant personal loans of 7-30 days duration,” the agency said in a statement.
Fintech companies bringing in funds for lending to the public have entered into MoUs (MoUs) with “dormant” NBFCs for their lending licenses, it said.
The ED observed, “Since, fintech companies were unlikely to obtain a fresh NBFC license from RBI, they forged the MoU route with dormant NBFCs through the media to carry out large-scale lending activities.”
The agency said it was “presumed” that the NBFCs had hired fintech companies to search for customers, but in reality they were piggybacking on the NBFC’s licenses and conducting a large-scale lending business.
The entire decision regarding fixation of interest rate/processing fee/platform fee etc. was taken “on the basis of instructions from Chinese, Hong Kong people”.
“The amount of Rs 940,46,39,498 has been treated as proceeds of offense as it was obtained through predatory lending activities in contravention of RBI guidelines,” the ED said.
The agency had earlier attached funds of Rs 72.32 from Kudos Finance & Investments Pvt Ltd and its fintech partners.
The total attachment in this case is now Rs 158.97 crore.