Kevin Helms
A student of Austrian economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open source systems, network effects and the intersection of economics and cryptography.
India freezes Bitcoin at Binance amid investigation involving crypto exchange Wazirx – Regulation Bitcoin News
India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) says it has frozen more than 77.6 bitcoins that were transferred to Binance from Indian crypto exchange Wazirx. The freeze is part of a money laundering investigation into a mobile gaming application.
Indian Government Freezes Bitcoin Held on Crypto Exchange Binance
India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) announced on Wednesday that it has frozen 77,62710139 bitcoins under the country’s Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). ED is the Indian government’s law enforcement and financial intelligence agency.
The freeze is part of the ED’s investigation into a mobile gaming application called E-nuggets. According to the announcement, the cryptocurrency was transferred from Wazirx, a popular Indian exchange, to Binance. The ED also tweeted a summary of the action.
The law enforcement agency explained that “Aamir Khan, S/o Nesar Ahmed Khan launched a mobile gaming application namely E-Nuggets which was designed for the purpose of cheating [the] public,” adding:
After collecting forfeitable amounts of money from the public, the withdrawal from the said app was suddenly stopped on one pretext or the other. Subsequently, all data including profile information was deleted from the aforementioned app servers.
The ED explained that their investigations have revealed that the accused transferred part of the ill-gotten funds abroad through the Indian crypto exchange Wazirx.
The accused allegedly opened a dummy account in the name of “Sima Naskar (Owner of M/s Pixal Design)” with Wazirx and used it to buy cryptocurrencies, the ED further described, elaborating:
Then the said cryptocurrencies were further transferred to another account in another crypto exchange, namely Binance.
“The rest of the transferred cryptocurrencies i.e. 77.62710139 bitcoins [equivalent to USD 1,573,466 (Rs 12.83 crore approximately)] that Binance crypto exchange has been frozen,” ED wrote.
Binance was believed to have acquired Wazirx in 2019. However, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) recently said that the acquisition was “never completed,” stressing that “Binance has never – at any time – owned any shares in Zanmai Labs, the entity . operating Wazirx.”
The ED froze Wazirx’s bank assets worth more than $8 million in August. However, Wazirx said earlier this month that the bank accounts have been frozen. After Wazirx, the ED froze $46 million worth of crypto and banking assets from Vauld, a crypto platform backed by Peter Thiel. In August, the agency sued the crypto exchange Coinswitch Kuber. However, the managing director of the exchange said it was not related to money laundering investigations.
What do you think about the ED freeze of bitcoin held on the crypto exchange Binance? Let us know in the comments section below.
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