New Delhi,  The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday said that they recently conducted search operations on 12 entities in Bengaluru having Chinese links and seized around Rs 5.85 crore.

These firms were cheating innocent youths on the pretext of providing them part-time jobs through the Chinese app 'Keepshare' and collecting money from them. The money thus collected was used to buy crypto currencies.

The ED initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR registered at the South CEN Police Station, Bengaluru City in a matter related to the part-time job fraud.

The ED learnt in the investigation that gullible public, mostly youths, were cheated by some Chinese persons through a mobile app namely 'Keepsharer' which promised them to give part-time jobs and collected money from them.

These Chinese persons formed companies in India and recruited many Indians as directors, translators (for translating Mandarin to English and vice versa), HR Managers and Tele callers. They obtained the documents of Indian persons and opened bank accounts by using their documents. The accused Chinese persons developed a mobile app in the name of 'Keepsharer' and started its advertisement through WhatsApp and Telegram by offering part time job opportunities to the youths. This app was linked with an investment app and they collected money from the youths for registration on this app.

"They collected money from the public also in the name of investment through this app. The youth were given the task of liking the videos of celebrities and uploading them on social media. When the task was completed, they used to pay Rs 20 per video which was to be credited in the Keepsharer wallet," the official said.

The ED said that for some time, money got credited in their wallet, but later on, the app was removed from the playstore. Thus, the public was cheated with their investment amount and the remuneration to be paid which ran into crores of rupees.

The money collected through the scam was routed from the bank accounts of some Bengaluru-based companies and then converted into crypto currency and transferred to China-based Crypto exchanges. All the transactions were under the control of Chinese persons through phone and WhatsApp groups.

As per the charge sheet filed by the police, out of 92 accused, six are Chinese and Taiwan nationals who were controlling the entire scam.

Further investigation in the matter was on.