
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has stated that it conducted searches at three premises of Coda Payments Pvt Ltd India (gaming top-up platform) as part of a money laundering probe into the fintech firm and Sea Ltd’s Free Fire. The agency raided the coda offices on Tuesday (27 September).
ED Raids Coda Offices in Money Laundering Probe Involving Garena Free Fire
ED has conducted searches in 3 premises pertaining to M/s Coda Payments India Pvt Ltd in connection with an ongoing investigation under PMLA, 2002 against M/s Coda Payments India Pvt. Ltd and ‘Garena Free Fire’ mobile game & freezed bank account balance of Rs. 68.53 Crore.
— ED (@dir_ed) September 27, 2022
The ED described Coda India as a “conduit” for remitting money outside of India and stated that the Indian branch of the company is simply formed to “act as an agent” for its Singapore-based parent company.
The Indian entity is also accused of collecting money from consumers under the pretext of selling digital material, while the actual services were channelled through Coda Singapore. According to the ED, Coda India made no real sales or purchases of digital content. “It is only a conduit to remit funds outside India. Till date the amount collected by CPIPL (Coda India) is INR 2,850 Cr, out of which, INR 2,265 Cr has been remitted outside India after retaining (a) a certain percentage of revenue for the payment of taxes and nominal profits,” the statement added.
Indian Government banned Free Fire back in February 2022 alongside other 53 apps as they were believed to be sending Indian user data to Chinese servers. Singapore eventually intervened, questioning Indian officials about why Free Fire was targeted despite the fact that Sea has its headquarters in the rich city-state, but it remains barred. However, the enhanced version of Garena’s hit battle royale game, Free Fire MAX is still accessible in the Indian region.