Kamal Ghorui
HYDERABAD: An alleged illegal gaming–fintech syndicate, estimated to be worth over Rs 5,000 crore, operating through online real-money gaming platforms backed by a complex web of fintech firms, shell entities and rented accounts has been uncovered by Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), zonal unit Hyderabad.Investigators, acting on specific inputs, developed the case by tracking two online platforms, funinmatch360.com and racejeet247.com, and following the money trail linked to the real-money gaming operations. In the course of the probe, officials identified two shell entities, Oceanique Web Solutions Pvt Ltd and Webwin Solutions Pvt Ltd, as recipients of funds routed from the gaming platforms, DGGI sources said.
The sources said Y S Prabhu Kumar and Raja Sekhar Reddy, founding directors of Wegofin Digital Solution, allegedly linked to the network, were under the scanner. An associate, allegedly operating from Dubai, was described by investigators as a mastermind. His identity is yet to be ascertained, the sources added.DGGI sources said the network involved fintech players such as payment aggregators, payment gateways and third-party technology service providers, which allegedly enabled transactions and helped obscure the trail for audit purposes.During the investigation, the DGGI sources said they found fintech companies were “circumventing GST payments on online money games (actionable claims)” by creating payout escrow accounts and “obliterating money trails for audit purpose”. The syndicate, they said, also created a layered network of shell entities and rented accounts to project the money flow as emerging from genuine business activity.The probe is examining how the alleged routing structures were used to move large volumes of funds while making it difficult to trace end-to-end flows, according to the sources.The sources said shady technology service providers (TSP) posing as fintech companies are also under scrutiny for allegedly exploiting banks’ payout APIs (application programming interfaces) to move out large sums without regulatory oversight. These APIs, meant for bulk automated transfers to employees or vendors, can enable transactions without OTP or manual checks when used by unregulated players presenting themselves as genuine customers, the sources said.
