India’s Executive Directorate (ED) says it has frozen more cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Tether and Wazirx tokens. The action is part of an investigation into the mobile gaming app E-nuggets. In its latest announcement, ED revealed that it has frozen about 86 bitcoins found on crypto exchange Binance.
Indian authorities freeze more cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, Tether, Wazirx Tokens
India’s Executive Director (ED)announcedFriday that it has frozen two more cryptocurrencies under the country’s Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).The ED is the law enforcement and economic intelligence agency of the Indian government. Details of the announcement are as follows.
ED (Directorate of Enforcement) has frozen the cryptocurrencies WRX (Wazirx utility token) andUSDT (tether, an Ethereum token pegged to the value of USD) equal to 47.64 lakhs.
ED initiated a money laundering investigation against Aamir Khan and others related to E-nuggets based on FIR dated February 15, 2021.
Aamir Khan, S/o Nesar Ahmed Khan, launched E-Nuggets, “which was designed to deceive the public,” Indian authorities said. “Moreover, after collecting large sums of money from the public, suddenly, under the pretext of one or the other excuse, withdrawals from the said app were stopped.”
The agency explained that the investigation revealed that the accused used a cryptocurrency exchange to transfer the amount earned from the E-nuggets gaming app, elaborating as follows.
An amount amount amounting to Rs. 4.764 million was found in a wallet of Wazirx (crypto exchange) owned by Aamir khan and his associates and the same has been frozen under PMLA.
In addition, the ED noted that Rs. 1.732 billion in cash was found and seized from a residential property during an earlier raid against Aamir Khan.
Indian authorities freeze more bitcoins at Binance
The latest announcement by the ED states.
85.91870554 bitcoins worth USD $1,674,255.7 (equivalent to about Rs. 13.56 Cr at market exchange rate) found in the balance on Binance exchange have been frozen.
In an earlier announcement, ED said it had frozen 77.62710139 bitcoins on Binance. That means ED has frozen an additional 8.29160415BTC.
Binance was believed to have acquired Wazirx in 2019. However, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) recently stated that the acquisition “did not complete” and stressed that “Binance never – at any point in time – owned a stake in Zanmai Labs, which operates Wazirx.”
ED froze Wazirx’s bank assets worth more than $8 million in August. Earlier this month, however, Wazirx announced that its bank accounts had been unfrozen.Following Wazirx, ED froze $46 million worth of crypto and bank assets of Vauld, a Peter Thiel-backed crypto platform.In August, the crypto exchange Coinswitch Kuber was investigated. However, the exchange’s CEO said it had nothing to do with the money laundering investigation.
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