The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached assets valued at approximately Rs 219.66 crore as part of its ongoing investigation into the Fairplay Betting App case, which involves allegations of illegal broadcasting of cricket/Indian Premier League (IPL) matches and online betting activities.

A provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was issued last week,November 22 to attach demat account holdings and immovable assets like land plots, flats and commercial warehouses located at Ajmer (Rajasthan), Kutch (Gujarat), Daman, Thane and Mumbai (Maharashtra) in the case against the betting app portal named Fairplay, The Financial probe agency said on Monday.

The central agency stated that  Fairplay was involved in illegal broadcasting of cricket/IPL matches and various online betting activities including results of Lok Sabha Elections 2024. The total value of attached assets is now stands at over Rs 331 crore.The financial probe agency had earlier attached properties worth more than Rs 100 crore in this case.

The money laundering case stems from an First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Nodal Cyber Police, Mumbai.The FIR was filed following a complaint by Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd. against Fairplay Sport LLC and others, alleging a revenue loss exceeding Rs 100 crore.

The financial agency probe found that Krish Laxmichand Shah (the key person behind Fairplay) registered various companies such as Play Ventures N.V and Dutch Antilles Management N.V at Curacao, Fair Play Sport LLC and Fairplay Management DMCC in Dubai and Play Ventures Holding Limited at Malta for the operations of ‘Fairplay.

Fairplay is primarily being operated by Shah from Dubai with the help of his associates such as Siddhant Shankaran Iyer alias Joe Paul, who looked after the financial aspects of Fairplay, Chirag Shah and Chintan Shah who took care of technological and software development aspects of Fairplay.

The ED claims the accused Krish L Shah and his associates have acquired various movable and immovable assets from proceeds of crime either in their names or in the name of their relatives or family members.