Hyderabad: Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials attached Rs 51.23 crore worth assets of PC Financial Services Private Limited (NBFC) under the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act - 1991 (FEM) for illegal activities in offering loans to customers based on mobile apps by which it collected huge amounts.
According to ED officials, they have seized an additional amount of Rs 51.23 crore lying in bank accounts and with payment gateways of NBFC. Following the latest attachments, the total assets have been to the tune of Rs 288 crore.
The firm runs a microloan application CashBean, which is operated by some Chinese nationals. A number of victims have obtained loans based on the app and were duped by its management.
Earlier, ED officials attached properties of the company of up to Rs 131 crore belonging to Chinese- monitored companies and seized Rs 106.93 crore.
One K Mounika (24) committed suicide due to harassment of CashBean app management after its staff posted abusive content on Mounika in December, 2020. Following the incident, the loan app’s illegal activities came to light in Telangana. Police have found that Mounika first borrowed Rs 16,832 on November 1 from CashBean. As the due date of November 7 arrived, she borrowed Rs 22,000 from CreditBean on November 5. Mounika took a loan of Rs 2.70 lakh and paid Rs 2.50 lakh.
However, CashBean staff began harassing her by sending fake FIRs, legal notices, and messages to her family members and relatives.
Following Mounika's suicide, police banned more than 60 loan apps in Telangana and removed them from Google Play store.
