ED conducts searches in “Magicwin” case

The searches were undertaken by the federal agency between December 10-12 in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune in the case against the portal named 'Magicwin'.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has conducted searches in Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune in connection with the “Magicwin” case involving illegal broadcasting of cricket Mens’ T20 World Cup matches and various online betting activities. Bank funds of about ₹30 lakh were frozen.

The agency is conducting investigations into the money laundering angle based on a First Information Report registered by the Cyber Crime Police (Ahmedabad) against Magicwin and others. Magicwin is a betting website disguised as gaming and it is “actually owned by Pakistani nationals”, as alleged.

“The operations of this website is mostly handled by Indian nationals working or settled in Dubai. It has also been revealed that the betting games being shown on the website are originally played in Philippines and other countries which allow betting activities. However, the same is re-telecasted on the Magicwin website by copying the APIs [Application Programming Interface] of the original games. The betting activities viz. deposits, placing of betting, and withdrawal are however controlled by the owners of Magicwin,” said the agency.

It is alleged that the money deposited in the bank accounts reflected on the Magicwin website by the players/betters were diverted through various layers of shell/mule bank accounts and further the profit part of the owners were invested in crypto assets, withdrawn in cash, or sent to Dubai through “hawala” channels.

“Further, the winning amounts of the players/betters are transferred to their respective bank accounts through merchant accounts of various shell companies maintained with the payment gateways/aggregators. The winning amounts are also transferred to the player’s bank account though Domestic Money Transfer (DMT),” the ED said.

The agency found that Magicwin had allegedly hosted a launch party in India wherein several B-town celebrities attended and endorsed the platform. “These celebrities also did video and photo-shoots for the advertisement of Magicwin and posted the same on their social media accounts for its promotion. Advertisements were also done through out-of-home hoardings in various parts of India, including Gujarat and Maharashtra...the profits generated by these betting website is more than 50% of the total deposits made by the players,” it said.

In this case, the agency has so far conducted 68 searches and seized/frozen assets worth about ₹3.55 crore.

Published - December 17, 2024 04:29 pm IST