Under the country’s Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) stated Wednesday that it had frozen 77.62710139 bitcoins on Binance. The ED is the law enforcement and economic intelligence department of the Indian government.
The freezing is part of the ED’s probe into E-nuggets, a mobile gaming app. The cryptocurrency was transferred from the Wazirx, a famous Indian exchange, to Binance, according to the release. In addition, the ED tweeted a description of its action.
According to the criminal enforcement agency, “Aamir Khan, s/o Nesar Ahmed Khan, launched a mobile game application titled E-Nuggets, which was aimed to swindle the public.” According to the ED, its investigations found that the accused transferred a portion of the illegally generated money overseas via the Indian cryptocurrency exchange Wazirx.
The ED says that the accused made a fake Wazirx account under the name “Sima Naskar (Proprietor of M/s Pixal Design)” and used it to buy bitcoins.
The ED noted, “The balance of said transferred cryptocurrencies, i.e., 77.62710139 bitcoins [equal to USD 1,573,466 (roughly Rs 12.83 crore)] at the Binance crypto exchange has been frozen.”.
Binance was thought to have purchased Wazirx in 2019. But Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said that the purchase “was never completed,” and that Binance has never owned any shares of Zanmai Labs, the company that runs Wazirx.
In August, the ED froze Wazirx’s bank assets totaling more than $8 million. Wazirx, on the other hand, announced earlier this month that its bank accounts had been unfrozen. The ED froze $46 million in crypto and bank assets of Vauld, a crypto platform backed by Peter Thiel. The government searched the cryptocurrency exchange Coinswitch Kuber in August. But the CEO of the exchange said it had nothing to do with investigations into money laundering.
About ED and Money Laundering Act
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is India’s law enforcement and economic intelligence agency responsibility for enforcing economic laws and combating economic crime. It is part of the Ministry of Finance’s Revenue Department. Officers from the Indian Revenue Service, the Indian Police Service, and the Indian Administrative Service, as well as officers promoted from its own cadre, make up its membership.
The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 is a Parliament of India Act passed by the NDA government to outlaw money laundering and provide for the seizure of property earned via money laundering. On July 1, 2005, the PMLA and the Rules notified thereunder went into force.
The Act and the Rules published thereunder require banking organizations, financial institutions, and intermediaries to validate their clients’ identity, retain records, and send information to the Financial Intelligence Unit – India in a defined manner (FIU-IND).
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