India’s ED suspects betting syndicates of moving more than ₹2000 crore abroad as AI investments

India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) is looking at a simple enough trick with a familiar high-risk twist: allegedly moving betting proceeds out of India and dressing them up as investments in overseas tech companies, including AI ventures. For PSPs, acquirers, and banks, the important part is not the AI label — it is the payment trail, the shell-heavy offshore structure, and the fact that the agency is now tying the flow to multiple betting operators.

1. The probe started with Parimatch, a Cyprus-registered platform that is banned in India but, according to the investigation, operates through mirror sites. ED traced transfers of more than ₹200 crore (about $23 million) from two Delhi-based companies to entities in Singapore that, the agency says, had limited commercial substance.
2. ED estimates that Parimatch earned more than ₹3000 crore (about $340 million) from Indian users over one year. The agency believes similar structures may have been used by other platforms, which matters because this is no longer being treated as a single-operator problem.
3. The scheme described by the sources runs through overseas AI companies with inflated valuations, using discounted cash flow methods even though the recipients reportedly had little operating history, assets, or revenue. In practice, the money then moves through a chain of entities and is suspected to end up with app promoters.
4. Corporate secretaries who helped with valuation work are also under ED’s scrutiny, and the agency is expected to pass its findings to the Reserve Bank of India. In September, ED carried out searches at payment companies, accountants, and corporate secretaries in Maharashtra, Delhi and surrounding areas, Rajasthan, and Gujarat.

For the high-risk payments crowd, the headline is not the AI angle itself; it is the recurring pattern of domestic betting cash being routed offshore through corporate wrappers that look investment-like on paper and suspiciously thin in practice.