Pramesh S Jain
Directorate of Enforcement (ED),Bengaluru Zonal on Tuesday carried out search operations at multiple premises in Bengaluru and Challekere belonging to Chitradurga MLA KC Veerendra and others related to cheating public in illegal online betting and seized huge amount of movable and immovable properties worth several crores .
The searches were carried under the provision of money laundering act .
During the searches,five high end vehicles (including Mercedes Benz with VIP numbers 0003 viz.KA 50 MB 0003,KA 09 ML 0003,KA 53 MD 0003,KA 53 MH 0003,KA 16 P 0003 and one Mercedes Benz with VIP number 5267 KA 02 MU 5267)were seized.
Further,an amount of Rs.55 Crore (approx.) were marked freeze,including Rs.40.69 Crore (approx.) in nine bank accounts and one Demat account of KC Veerendra and a total amount of Rs.14.46 Crore (approx.)in 262 mule accounts recovered from one of the accused gateways through which money collected by multiple gaming websites being operated by K C Veerendra and his associates were being routed.
The said searches and tracing of Proceeds of Crime (POC) have been undertaken during the ED Custody of prime accused MLA Chitradurga District,K C Veerendra, an official release,stated .
Earlier,on Friday ED officials had taken extension of ED custody of K C Veerendra for additional seven days on basis of documentary evidences linking him to generation and laundering .
The Enforcement Case Information Report,was recorded earlier against K C Veerendra and others related to cheating public in illegal online betting cases.
Searches have been carried out across 31 premises in Challekere,Bengaluru,Panaji,Gangtok,Jodhpur,Hubali and Mumbai.
During the course of earlier searches, an amount of Rs.12 Crore in cash, Gold Jewelary worth Rs.6 Crore, Silver articles around 10 Kg along with 4 vehicle were seized.
Further investigation has revealed that the accused is running several online betting sites in the name of King567,Raja567,Lion567,etc.
It has also been revealed that several gateways have been used for routing payments collected through these websites.
The money collected from these websites being operated by KC Veerendra and his associates through single gateway alone is more than Rs.2,000 Crore in a short span of time.
It has been revealed that,K C Thippeswamy,brother of the accused is operating 3 business entities from Dubai viz.Diamond Softech,TRS Technologies, Prime9Technologies and that these entities are related to the call centre services and gaming business of KC Veerendra.
It is suspected that many more such Dubai based entities like Castle Rock Project Management Services, Lascaux Core Project Management Services etc.have been incorporated by KC Veerendra in partnership with K C Thippeswamy,Pruthvi N Raj,Anil Gowda and others.
ED investigation revealed that the said mule accounts are provided by various middlemen to the operators of these gaming websites,in this case Appu alias Pruthvi N Raj(nephew of K C Veerendra),who in turn use the same to collect the funds received from various players.
These transactions include layering the said money deposits of players through escrow accounts of gateways and TSPs and then making settlement in mule accounts which are controlled by the gaming site owners.
These funds are further siphoned off in various ways, including through hawala transactions.It has also been revealed that K C Veerendra and his associates in Dubai are operating several gaming websites by using various gateways and fintech service providers for layering of funds and for masking their illicit activities as genuine e-commerce businesses.
Further investigation is under progress.
