NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has summoned representatives of tech giants Meta and Google as part of its investigation into illegal betting apps case under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and asked them to depose before it here for recording their statement on Monday, official sources said on Saturday.The two companies are yet to give their response on the development either through a public statement or to the agency.The ED has been probing multiple online platforms hosting illegal betting and gambling links, including instances of advertisements placed for them on various Internet-based social media outlets and app stores.According to the agency sources, the representatives of the tech giants have asked to depose before it to make the investigators understand how such illegal platforms “are able to place advertisements on their social media and communication links”.Notably, even a few celebrities from the field of sports and cinema are also under the ED’s scanner in these cases, as some of them are already questioned and a few others are also expected to be summoned by the agency soon, the sources said.Earlier, the ED in official statements had alleged that illegal online betting and gambling platforms were cheating innocent people of their hard-earned money and also laundering and evading taxes worth crores of rupees.The agency has been examining financial and operational activities of ‘dabba trading apps’ involved in illegal trading and betting platforms, namely VMoney, VM Trading, Standard Trades Ltd, IBull Capital Ltd, LotusBook, 11Starss, and GameBetLeague.“Online betting platforms operated through white-label apps and ADMIN rights exchanged on a profit-sharing basis,” a senior ED official said, adding: “Hawala operators and fund handlers identified, with digital and financial records, are also being examined.”The official said the ED initiated its case under provisions of the PMLA on the basis of the FIR registered at Lasudia Police Station in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore on January 9 this year, invoking various sections of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (formerly IPC).In its investigation so far the ED has found that “Vishal Agnihotri, the beneficial owner of VMoney and 11Starss, acquired ADMIN rights of the LotusBook betting platform on a 5 percent profit-sharing arrangement. He subsequently transferred these rights to Dhaval Devraj Jain, retaining 0.125 per cent profit while Jain held 4.875 per cent”, the official said.He said, “Dhaval Jain, along with his associate John States alias Pandey, developed a white-label betting platform and supplied it to Vishal Agnihotri for running 11Starss.in and one person named Mayur Padya alias Padya, a hawala operator, handled cash-based fund transfers and payments for the betting operations.”
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