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ED attaches Rs 11.14 crore worth of assets belonging to Suresh Raina and Shikhar Dhawan in betting case
The attached assets include mutual fund investments valued at Rs 6.64 crore held in Suresh Raina’s name and an immovable property valued at Rs 4.5 crore in Shikhar Dhawan’s name.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday provisionally attached assets valued at Rs 11.14 crore belonging to former Indian cricketers Suresh Raina and Shikhar Dhawan. The action is linked to the ongoing 1xBet money laundering case.
The ED’s headquarters attached movable and immovable properties of Raina and Dhawan under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The attached assets include mutual fund investments valued at Rs 6.64 crore held in Raina’s name and an immovable property valued at Rs 4.5 crore in Dhawan’s name. The agency reported uncovering a laundering trail of over Rs 1,000 crore following searches at four payment gateways.
The probe by the central agency revealed that 1xBet and its surrogate brands, including 1xBat and 1xBat Sporting Lines, facilitated illegal online betting and gambling across India.
The ED states that Raina and Dhawan entered into endorsement agreements with foreign entities to promote 1xBet through its surrogates. Payments for these endorsements were routed through foreign intermediaries to conceal the origin of funds derived from illegal betting. The platform operated in India without authorization, using surrogate branding to target Indian users via social media, online videos, and print media.
1xBet collected money from Indian users through more than 6,000 'mule accounts'. Collected amounts were routed through multiple payment gateways to disguise their origin. The ED stated that merchants were onboarded onto these gateways without KYC verification. Verification of merchant profiles indicated a mismatch between declared business activities and transaction patterns, signaling money laundering of funds exceeding Rs 1,000 crore.
Searches resulted in the seizure of evidence. Over 60 bank accounts linked to the payment gateways and an amount exceeding Rs 4 crore have been frozen.
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