The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached more assets of Fairplay, worth around ₹219 crore in a money laundering case against the online betting site. The firm had allegedly indulged in betting on the 2024 Lok Sabha poll results, besides illegal broadcast of IPL cricket matches.
In a provision attachment order issued on November 22 under the PMLA, the Mumbai Zone office of the ED attached the company’s demat account holdings and immovable assets in the forms of land, flats and commercial warehouses located at Ajmer in Rajasthan, Kutch in Gujarat, Daman, Thane and Mumbai in Maharashtra, which together were worth approximately ₹219.66 crore, the ED said on Monday.
The agency said its investigations had revealed that Krish Laxmichand Shah, the key person behind Fairplay, registered various companies such as Play Ventures N.V and Dutch Antilles Management N.V at Curacao -- a Dutch Caribbean island; Fair Play Sport LLC and Fairplay Management DMCC at Dubai; and Play Ventures Holding Ltd at Malta -- an Island in Southern Europe -- for the company’s operations.
Krish Shah would himself operate his online betting firm from Dubai, with the help of his associates, Siddhant Shankaran Iyer (alias Joe Paul) who managed finance, and Chirag Shah and Chintan Shah, who handled the technological and software development aspects, the ED pointed out.
Krish Shah and his associates had acquired a number of movable and immovable assets from the proceeds of crime, either in their names or in the names of their relatives/ family members, the agency charged.
In searches conducted on June 12 and August 27 this year, the ED seized movable assets along with incriminating documents and digital devices. The total attachments and seizures in the case till date adds up to approximately ₹331.16 crore, according to the ED.
Further investigations are in progress.
The agency initiated investigations on the basis of an FIR registered by Nodal Cyber Police, Mumbai, against Fairplay Sport LLC and others on a complaint of Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd under various sections of the Indian Penal Code IPC, 1860; Information Technology Act, 2000; and the Copyright Act, 1957, for causing loss of revenue of more than ₹100 crore.