Karnataka Police have busted a loan racket run by two Chinese Nationals who were involved in fraudulent money transactions and gave loans to people at exorbitant processing fees and unreasonably high interest rates. The accused involved in the loan racket also harassed the customers after giving out large amounts of loans for violating ‘laws’. The cops have arrested two Indian employees of the firm in the matter.
#Karnataka police have busted a racket allegedly run by #Chinese nationals, who gave loans at exorbitant rates and harassed and humiliated the customers for ‘violation’ of laws, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Sandeep Patil said. pic.twitter.com/WQRPbBt4AO
— IANS Tweets (@ians_india) November 26, 2021
Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Sandeep Patil informed on Friday that the Chinese Nationals were running a firm that gave out loans at high rates to people. The customers who took the loans from the Chinese Nationals were then harassed and told that they had broken ‘laws’.
Patil said that the investigation revealed that the Chinese Nationals running the racket had opened bank accounts using the names of their Indian staff. He said that the accused used these bank accounts with Indian names to make fraudulent transactions and transfer crores of rupees to China. The racket was run under the name of Licorice Technology Private Limited in Marathalli, Bengaluru. According to Zaubacorp, the two directors of the company are Shaik Abdul Rasheed and Ankita Karamchand Loya.
As per reports, Central Crime Branch (CCB) Economic Offences Wing had carried out a raid at the offices of Licorise Technology Pvt. Ltd. in Munnekolala and busted a network consisting of around 52 companies registered in benami names run by the Chinese Nationals. The two accused arrested were identified as HR executive Kamaraj More (25) and team leader Darshan Chouhan (21).
The firm used applications like Cash Master and Crazy Rupees to provide short-term loans and demanded large amounts as processing fees of the loans which were almost half the amount of loans being granted.
Further, the investigation revealed that the names of the employees working for the firm Licorise Technology Pvt. Ltd. were used to open bank accounts and then companies were registered in the name of those employees. The Chinese nationals had collected documents such as Aadhaar and PAN cards from the staff and had registered 5-6 companies in their names. As many as 52 companies were registered in the names of the staff and accounts were opened in private banks. The interest paid by the borrowers was credited to these accounts. Police said that as per preliminary investigation, crores of rupees have been sent to China through online transfers from these accounts.
A senior police official said, “The employees were given incentives to open an ‘account’ in their name, to which many willingly volunteered. But unknown to them, companies were registered in their names which in turn were indulging in illegal loan grant and recovery. A maze of firms registered in various benami names have been created to ensure the real owner, Chinese nationals, are hidden.”
Reportedly, the companies acted as middlemen in securing those loans and had ties with RBI registered Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs). The official said, “The companies do not even offer loans. They are only a middleman. They get loans granted from NBFCs, cheat the customers charging almost 50% as processing fee and later charge hefty weekly interest, barred by law. Thus on the loan principal provided by Indian NBFCs, the debtors are also cheated, harassed for recovery and the windfall is transferred out of the country to China.”
Police said that while two persons have been arrested and 83 computers seized, efforts are on to nab the absconding Chinese nationals.
CCB will seek the help of the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department, Department of Goods and Services Tax, Reserve Bank of India and Register of Companies for further investigation of the case.
